ZIMRA blames tax clearance delays on application congestion

The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) delayed issuing 2021 Tax Clearance certificated because of the perennial issues with its online portal. Last month the tax authority issued a statement saying that it will not be issuing certificates due to the portal being down. The statement went on to say:

“In order to facilitate business operations and allow for adequate time to rectify the technical challenge being encountered, ZIMRA would like to advise the public that all registered clients are deemed to have a valid tax clearance up to January 2021.”

ZIMRA has issued another statement laying blame on the tsunami of applications that it recieved as the deadline approached.

“The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority would like to sincerely apologise for the challenges that our valued clients have been experiencing with our E-services system in applying for the tax clearance certificates for 2021.

This has been worsened by the congestion due to very high user traffic applying at the same time, following the expiry of the previously extended tax clearance submission deadline.

The system is operational and our Information Communication Technology team is attending to system congestion challenges to improve the system performance”

ZIMRA via The Chronicle.

ZIMRA’s systems should be built for the worst-case scenario

Saying that the system was overloaded due to the number of applications doesn’t suffice. The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority’s systems should be designed to handle a torrent of applications.

This goes for all government-run systems, we are all aware of the rush that happens at the beginning of every month to purchase ZESA tokens and the delays that occur. Things like this should have been worked out ages ago and the focus now should have been on improving efficiency.

In the same report by The Chronicle, ZIMRA is said to be working with Microsoft to enhance capacity. There were however no further details given as to the progress of that partnership. But in the meantime, taxpayers who failed to get their ITF263 (tax clearance) through the system should contact their assigned officer via email for assistance.