Govt Raises $22 Million Health Levy From Airtime Tax

Responding to questions in Parliament last week, Minister of Health and Child Care Dr David Parirenyatwa said Government has raised $22 million from a levy imposed on airtime. The money was raised by collecting five cents from the sale of airtime recharge cards.

Parirenyatwa said the money will be used to procure drugs and other accessories at public health institutions. Said Parirenyatwa:

We have had a Health Levy Fund where we take five cents of every dollar to those who are using cellphones. So if you phone and your bill is a dollar, we take five cents from there and put it into Health Levy Fund. To date, this has raised $22 million and we have taken up to $16 million to purchase drugs and other accessories. These are now mostly, at the national pharmaceutical company. I am quite certain that within the next few weeks, there will be a sizeable difference in terms of supply of medicines in our institutions. The challenge that we have is that we could have used more money but the constraint has been foreign currency allocation.

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