{"id":88330,"date":"2023-12-15T10:15:42","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T08:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/shops-hike-prices-ahead-of-christmas-blame-mthuli-ncubes-tax-proposals"},"modified":"2023-12-15T14:43:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T12:43:17","slug":"shops-hike-prices-ahead-of-christmas-blame-mthuli-ncubes-tax-proposals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/shops-hike-prices-ahead-of-christmas-blame-mthuli-ncubes-tax-proposals","title":{"rendered":"Shops Hike Prices Ahead Of Christmas, Blame Mthuli Ncube’s Tax Proposals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>Some shops have hiked prices on basic grocery items, making the festive season increasingly gloomy for most citizens already struggling to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

According to a survey conducted by NewsDay<\/b>, shops have increased the prices of mealie-meal, sugar, cooking oil, rice and sugar, among others, even in United States dollars.<\/p>\n

In some retail shops, a 2-litre bottle of cooking oil, which was selling at US$3, now costs US$4.50, while the price of a 2kg pack of rice rose to US$3.50 from US$2.<\/p>\n

The price of a 2-litre bottle of Mazoe Crush rose to US$4,50 from $3, while a bar of washing soap now costs US$1.50 from US$1.<\/p>\n

However, the Minister of Industry and Commerce Sithembiso Nyoni told NewsDay on Thursday that the Government will not impose price controls, but engage business over the price increases. She said:<\/p>\n

Government does not tame prices. What we do is we discuss with the business and try to understand why they are hiking prices.<\/p>\n

So, I will set up an office to look into that and then we will take the necessary dialogue steps to look into that.<\/p>\n

Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) president Denford Mutashu warned of further price hikes.<\/p>\n

He blamed the price increases on proposals to increase taxes by Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Mthuli Ncube in the 2024 budget. Said Mutashu:<\/p>\n

There is a huge expectation of more price hikes before year-end and this has been triggered by the barrage of taxes on basic commodities contained in the 2024 budget.<\/p>\n

The proposal to increase VAT [value-added tax] on basic commodities shocked the market because, since 1980, we have not had a hike on VAT on basic commodities.<\/p>\n

The 1% wealth tax proposal has also resulted in property owners raising their rental fees.<\/p>\n

So, business owners who rent property will increase the prices of the services and commodities.<\/p>\n

He said the daily power cuts have increased the cost of running business as businesses are forced to rely on generators as alternative power sources. Mutashu said:<\/p>\n

Big businesses are running on generators as a power source and it is not sustainable. It is not cost-effective, so all these cost drivers have piled pressure.<\/p>\n

If there is no reversal of VAT on basic commodities and VAT on school fees, it is going to be a disaster because already schools have increased fees to cushion themselves from the VAT proposal.<\/p>\n

Some schools have reportedly announced intentions to increase fees by up to 100% next term.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Some shops have hiked prices on basic grocery items, making the festive season increasingly gloomy for most citizens already struggling to make ends meet. According to a survey conducted by NewsDay, shops have increased the prices of mealie-meal, sugar, cooking oil, rice and sugar, among others, even in United States dollars. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":88329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[1493,2189,2132,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-88330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-africa-press","10":"tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","11":"tag-festive-season","12":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"\nShops Hike Prices Ahead Of Christmas, Blame Mthuli Ncube's Tax Proposals - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some shops have hiked prices on basic grocery items, making the festive season increasingly gloomy for most citizens alr ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/shops-hike-prices-ahead-of-christmas-blame-mthuli-ncubes-tax-proposals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shops Hike Prices Ahead Of Christmas, Blame Mthuli Ncube's Tax Proposals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some shops have hiked prices on basic grocery items, making the festive season increasingly gloomy for most citizens alr ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/shops-hike-prices-ahead-of-christmas-blame-mthuli-ncubes-tax-proposals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-15T08:15:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-15T12:43:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2023\/12\/sm_1702627756.669878.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/shops-hike-prices-ahead-of-christmas-blame-mthuli-ncubes-tax-proposals\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/shops-hike-prices-ahead-of-christmas-blame-mthuli-ncubes-tax-proposals\",\"name\":\"Shops Hike Prices Ahead Of Christmas, Blame Mthuli Ncube's Tax Proposals - 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