Article Details
Vol. 8 No. 1 (2026): August
Electronic Transaction Growth and Revenue Mobilization: The IMTT Experience in Zimbabwe
Abstract
Purpose: This study examines the impact of the IMTT on Zimbabwe’s tax base and electronic transaction growth.
Methodology: The research employed the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) methodology complemented by DOLS, FMOLS, and canonical regression. This study uses monthly time-series data from Oct 2018 to December 2025. Pre-diagnostic tests, including unit root and cointegration tests, were conducted to eliminate spurious results from the analysis.
Results: Findings reveal that A 1% increase in the IMTT raised the total revenue by approximately 1.12%, highlighting its efficacy in domestic resource mobilization. However, the IMTT exhibits negative elasticity with respect to electronic transaction volumes (-0.186). The results further show a strong positive association between the IMTT and other tax heads, such as VAT, CIT, and PIT.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the IMTT is a key revenue tool in Zimbabwe, suppresses the volume of electronic transactions, and complements other tax heads such as VAT, CIT, and PIT.
Limitations: This study faced challenges in accessing complete data, necessitating the use of the cardinal spline interpolation method to account for missing observations.
Contributions: The results provide context-specific evidence for academics and revenue policymakers in Zimbabwe to design effective revenue mobilization strategies. This study clarifies the relationship between IMTT and electronic transactions by incorporating additional tax heads, including VAT, CIT, and PIT. Unlike previous studies using annual secondary data, this research employs high-frequency monthly time-series data from October 2018 to December 2025, providing a broader fiscal analysis.
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