Zim: Import duty on newspapers scrapped
He also reduced duty on communication gadgets: telephone and cell phone handsets are now attracting duty of 5%, while duty on computers has been removed.
But it is the scrapping of duty on newspapers that has already raised opposition.
Introduced last year, it was meant to restrict the distribution of what President Robert Mugabe's government described as a flow of “hostile tabloids published from Britain and South Africa” during the run-up to the harmonised elections last year.
Zimbabwe's newsstands are dominated by South African publications, including the Sunday Times, the Mail & Guardian and the Financial Mail.
The Zimbabwean, published in the UK is widely distributed in Zimbabwe and has been subjected to attacks by members of Mugabe's party.
Former information minister Jonathan Moyo has attached Biti's removal of duty on newspapers, saying this was “motivated by a partisan interest in favour of the prime minister's controversial newsletter”.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has started publishing a weekly newsletter distributed in Harare and Bulawayo.
About Dumisani Ndlela
Dumisani Ndlela is a Zimbabwean journalist specialising in business and financial reporting, with experience reporting on commodities, stock and financial markets, advertising, marketing and the media. He has previously reported from a number of regional countries as well as from the UK and Germany on commodities and regional integration. He can be contacted on ku.oc.oohay@aleldnd.
