Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Professor Mthuli Ncube says Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product has expanded past US$66 billion, creating an urgent imperative for the national tax collector to scale up domestic revenue collection.

Speaking at the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) Silver Jubilee Anniversary, Ncube said the ongoing structural growth of the economy requires a proportional expansion of the country’s tax base to sustain national development programs.

“Today, Zimbabwe is a US$66 billion-plus economy and continues to grow. As our economy expands, ZIMRA must rise with it,” Ncube said during his guest of honour address marking 25 years of the tax authority.

“A growing economy must produce a growing revenue base, because a stronger revenue base gives government greater capacity to finance national priorities and development.”

Ncube highlighted that the expansion of the economy from its 2001 levels when ZIMRA was founded reflects a broader, more complex macroeconomic environment.

He noted that domestic resource mobilisation has become a critical mechanism for preserving national economic sovereignty, particularly given the present global financial landscape.

“This is the deeper meaning of domestic resource mobilisation. It is about economic sovereignty, fiscal resilience and our capacity, as a nation, to finance our own development,” Ncube said.

He added that domestic revenue collection is crucial “at a time when many developing countries, including Zimbabwe, face constrained access to affordable international financing, rising financing costs and a shrinking pool of development assistance.”

To align revenue collection with economic output, the Treasury has set a formal target to raise Zimbabwe’s tax-to-GDP ratio to 22% by 2030.

Ncube directed ZIMRA to broaden its tax base, strengthen compliance, curb revenue leakages, and simplify administrative procedures to meet the standard.

“Our ambition is to raise the tax-to-GDP ratio to 22% by 2030, consistent with our national development objectives and regional convergence ambitions. That is the standard against which the next phase of ZIMRA’s journey must be measured,” Ncube said.

The Minister emphasised that the growth of the tax base depends on multi-agency enforcement and border security to combat financial crimes and illicit cross-border flows.

“The nature of smuggling, corruption, illicit financial flows and other forms of economic crime is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Our response must, therefore, be equally coordinated, intelligence-led and technology-enabled,” Ncube said, calling for enhanced cooperation among security agencies, government ministries, and the tax authority.