Cattle taxes have been at the centre of many debates in recent times among farmers and other stakeholders, especially on the issue of amounts expected to be paid per beast per year.

Essentially, most of these stakeholders do not even know whether cattle tax collection is still ongoing or was one of the colonial practices the Government has relegated to the archives of history, thanks to the erratic way of collecting the levy.

That the tax which used to be $2 was increased is not a secret, but the apparent laxity on the part of the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) in collecting the taxes has not helped the situation.

This has left farmers disoriented as to why the taxes should be paid.

Their predicament has been compounded by the emergence of tick-eradication programmes being run in some parts of the country that require farmers to be making monthly contributions, which some farmers now confuse for the traditional tax supposed to be paid per year.

In Mashonaland Central Province, for instance, there is a programme being jointly rolled out by the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and another organisation called Enterprise in which they are working with community dipping committees to procure acaricides for the control of ticks.

The programme is set to run for six months during which the organisations raises 90 percent of funds needed to buy dipping chemicals, while farmers raise the remainder in the first month.

In the fourth month, the farmers meet 25 percent of the total cost while their partners take care of 75 percent of the budget.

In the sixth and final month, farmers meet 50 percent of the costs, while the partners cover the outstanding half, but for the entire duration, farmers will be using the extra cash raised from their contributions to buy dipping chemicals that will be stocked for later use.

The farmers are reportedly contributing US$2 per month and the programme is said to be running in areas such as Mt Darwin, Guruve and Bindura, to name just a few.

In Manicaland, a similar arrangement is taking place in Makoni District.

The programme is important and will help farmers save their cattle herd from tick-borne diseases, which have claimed in excess of 100 000 cattle countrywide since they broke out last year.

It is these schemes that are sometimes at the centre of debates as some farmers think they are being fleeced, especially after paying the Government cattle tax, which now stands at $10 per beast.

Last week, a friend of mine phoned from his Makoni District rural home seeking clarity on the figures after he was told that farmers were being asked to pay US$2 per beast as taxes.

The programme is being managed by DVS through its officers throughout the country.

Dipping committees and the farmers decide on the amounts the farmers will be paying and the money raised does not go to the Government.
Government collects its money from the taxes that farmers pay every year and whose payment in recent years has not been seriously enforced in a development that has deprived the Government of money needed for disease surveillance, procurement of dipping chemicals and vaccination programmes to cite a few uses.

And while these programmes are running, it is necessary to separate them from the traditional taxes farmers have been paying over the years so that they do not end up thinking the Government is overburdening them with levies, yet the other fees are from their efforts as cattle producers to save their herds.

This unfortunate development has also contributed to Government’s failure to raise funds to procure dipping chemicals, especially during difficult economic patches like what is prevailing now.

Funds raised through taxes have since time immemorial been used to improve service provision to farmers by Government and such funds have made it easier for stakeholders, including the Government to react each time there was a disease outbreak.

The unfortunate scenario now confronting the cattle industry is that Government coffers are depleted owing to the current economic challenges, so the little that farmers contribute once per year should provide a starting point in times of emergency.

It seems cattle producers no longer see the need to pay taxes fluently as they used to do in the past probably because the tax collectors are not readily visible, but for business-minded farmers that should not be an excuse to find refuge in — they should just act responsibly and go to the responsible offices and make their payments.

I guess many farmers now feel the effects of not acting responsibly after losing cattle to tick-borne diseases, which could have been contained if Government had the financial resources to which the taxes also contribute.

Naturally, cattle farmers are not lavish spenders and do not appear comfortable spending money even on their animals, which incidentally form their wealth base given that, they in most cases turn to them to finance the occasional expenditures.

Taxes are not the only levies farmers are required to pay to the Government, as they are also charged 10 percent of the total value of one head of cattle that they sell through sale pens or auctions in most cases.

Most farmers, especially those from the smallholder sector, do not readily want to make these payments, as they feel entitled to getting everything monetary in nature that is generated from their cattle.

The farmers are also expected to pay $20 per animal for a movement permit or per load of cattle being transported from one place to another.

The cost of the load does not change with numbers being moved, but remains pegged at $20.

Farmers have gone to the extent of transporting their cattle in the dead of the night to escape the scrutiny of veterinary officers and the police, with some of the forms of transport they use rating way below the expected standards.