Safari operators raise concern l budget

By Ntando Sibanda



SAFARI operators have expressed concern at the classification of hunting under the agricultural sector in the recently announced 2011 national budget, saying that this is a covert means of sabotaging them as far as allocation of funds is concerned, Sunday Business can reveal.
Hunting has traditionally been classified under tourism.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe, the association’s vice-chairperson, Mr Emmanuel Fundira, said hunting is a tourism activity and that there is no way it can be classified under the agricultural sector unless there is a deliberate attempt to have the tourism industry fork out value added tax (VAT) when exporting trophies.
“That classification is suspect and wrong because photographic, non-photographic and sport hunting are tourist activities and not agricultural activities, so I think he (Finance Minister Tendai Biti) is trying to introduce VAT for our trophies because we are zero tagged for tax as we are net exporters,” he said.
Mr Fundira said that this will rob them as a sector in the allocation of funds and incentives as it now seems that they are one of the least contributors in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) when last year tourism had come out as the fourth major contributor.
“This classification issue will also rob us when it comes to the allocation of funds and incentives because your contribution in the GDP determines how much funding and incentives you are allocated in the national budget.
“I think there is a sinister motive of trying to deny us what is due to this sector in terms of fiscal support,” he said.
Mr Fundira said under the Tourism Act, all hunters are registered with the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry and not with the Ministry of Agriculture so it is an enigma that the hunting sector has been classified under the agricultural sector. He said the tourism sector is split into three distinct branches that are access, which deals with transportation of tourists and tourism reception; accommodation, which deals with the places where the tourist stay and, activities, in which hunting falls under.
There are three clear branches of tourism namely access, accommodation and activities, and legal hunting of any sort is a 100 percent foreign tourism activity because it is mainly if not solely done by foreign tourists,” he said.
In an analysis of the 2011 national budget in relation to the tourism industry, the Renaissance Merchant bank managing director, Mrs Gwen Muteiwa, said this year it has been hard for them to come up with correct figures as the sector’s subsections have been merged into other sectors like agriculture.
“Tourism contributed US$616 million to GDP, being 11 percent in 2009, being the fourth largest contributor to GDP after agriculture, transport and distribution and manufacturing.
“We could not analyse the data for 2011 because it was lumped up with agriculture, hunting and fishing, then there is another category called distribution, hotels and restaurant,” she said

If those in power in Zim had the faintest clue about running Government, they wouldn't be in the nightmare they're in, and have been in. Nothing changes when the Fox watches the hen house.
LDK