Recently, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube updated SI 227 of 2019 to Statutory Instrument (SI) 25 of 2020 which exempted the Chinese firm from paying tax since December 2009.
However, the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) has described the move as unjustified and unfair to the locals who are milked by the same government through the unjust 2% tax.
According to ZIMCODD, the income tax exemption is in violation of section 298 (1) (b) (I) of the constitution which states that "the burden of taxation must be shared fairly".
"It is worrisome that the government has decided to give foreign monopoly tax exemption when the same government is milking ordinary citizens through the unjust 2% tax intermediated money transfer, among other retrogressive taxes," said ZIMCODD.
The non-govenmental organisation suggested that the government be guided by the 4Rs that speak to tax justice in the country, raise revenue equitability, redistributes income, price of goods and services and representation of tax payments.
Huawei is a major service provider in Zimbabwe's telecommunications industry, mainly the government-run enterprises – NetOne, TelOne, Telecel.
This was revealed in March 2019 when Huawei, among others, stopped providing services for the maintenance and upgrading of their telecommunication infrastructure, leading to nationwide network disruptions.
The stoppage mostly affected TelOne and NetOne services as the Chinese company is their main maintenance and upgrades, service provider.
