‘Zim loses $2,5bn in capital flights’

Source: ‘Zim loses $2,5bn in capital flights’ – DailyNews Live

BUSINESS EDITOR     12 April 2017

HARARE – Zimbabwe is believed to have lost over $2,5 billion in capital
flights and trade misinvoicing between 2008 and 2013 due to the country’s
controversial empowerment laws, a local think-tank has said.

A latest report by the Zimbabwe Economic Policy Analysis and Research Unit
(Zeparu) revealed that unrecorded capital outflows occur through trade
with different countries including Canada, China, Germany, Greece, Italy
and United States.

Zeparu noted that these countries were used as gateways of capital out of
Zimbabwe in the five-year period.

“The highest capital flight through trade misinvoicing was done through
Italy with a total amount of approximately $120 million from 2008 to
2013,” the think-tank said in a report titled Capital flight and trade
misinvoicing in Zimbabwe.

“During this period, the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment policy
might have scared investors. Investment risk might have continued to be
present even during the multi-currency period,” Zeparu said.

Zimbabwe enacted the Indigenisation Act in 2008, which requires
foreign-owned firms to cede at least 51 percent shares to locals. However,
economic experts said the law is the biggest obstacle to investing in the
mineral-rich country.

Zimbabwe has the second largest reserves of platinum and chrome, but has
lagged behind neighbours like Mozambique and Zambia in attracting foreign
investment largely due to President Robert Mugabe’s economic empowerment
drive and high political risk.

Outside mining, foreign investors are interested in Zimbabwe’s
manufacturing and tourism sectors and infrastructure projects like power
generation, but are often discouraged by the indigenisation law and red
tape.

The leading research firm said the ownership of mining companies has left
the mining sector vulnerable to smuggling and illicit flows, as the
government policies are deemed  hostile to foreign investors.

“There is a need to put in place strict measures to monitor both local and
foreign-owned mining companies to curb capital flight. The results also
show that during the period of macro-economic and political stability, the
contribution of the mining sector to economic growth increased and capital
flight was lower.

“This suggests that political and macro-economic stability is needed to
prevent capital flight,” Zeparu added.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe also recorded illegal capital inflows from South
Africa, Belgium, Australia, United Kingdom and Zambia.

According to Zeparu, the highest illegal inflows come from South Africa –
Zimbabwe’s largest trading partner.

“Many Zimbabweans are residing in South Africa. As such, the high capital
inflows are possibly due to the ease of hiding money in both exports and
imports. This might suggest a lack of tight border controls between the
countries, creating avenues for these inflows of unrecorded capital,”
Zeparu said.

The research unit pointed out that a disaggregation of minerals reveals
that trade misinvoicing for pearls and precious metals was largely driven
by export misinvoicing rather than import misinvoicing.

The import misinvoicing was a channel for unrecorded capital inflows into
the country.

This may indicate a misclassification of processed mineral products as raw
materials and minerals to evade taxes.

According to Global Financial Integrity Report, Zimbabwe has lost an
accumulative $12 billion in the last three decades.