Demonstrations across Malawi\u2019s four main cities during the past week have achieved a delay in the introduction of a new tax regime that business owners claim will cripple their livelihoods.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands had signed petitions which this week were presented to tax officials and on Monday thousands of small traders shut up shops and businesses to hold protest marches in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu.<\/p>\n
The actions have achieved a delay in the rollout of the electronic invoicing system (EIS) introduced by the Malawi Revenue Authority, a more detailed tax regime than existed previously. Due to be introduced this week, a transition to the system has now been postponed until April.<\/p>\n
It was the latest sign of unrest in a country facing significant problems tackling aid cuts, foreign currency shortages, and resulting rises in the cost of necessities. Protests over food and fuel prices<\/a> in September and November were hijacked by political groups, with outbreaks of violence.<\/p>\n President Peter Mutharika, elected last year with a promise to restore the economy, has carried out adjustments to fuel, electricity and VAT, with fuel prices rising by 41%<\/a> and electricity by 12%.<\/p>\n Those who closed their shops and walked to tax offices, dressed in black and carrying placards criticising the revenue authority for prioritising \u201chitting the target\u201d of revenue collection and \u201ccelebrating\u201d while vendors are having to shutter their businesses, are especially struggling over import and export of goods.<\/p>\n A shortage of foreign currency, they say, is pushing them to buy the dollar for imports at almost three times the bank rate.<\/p>\n \u201cOur businesses are under threat because of the economy,\u201d said Robert Nachamba, a representative of small business owners, after a group of 1,000 protesters delivered their petition at the Blantyre revenue authority offices.<\/p>\n \u201cThe country does not have foreign currency in the banks and now the Malawi Revenue Authority is coming with issues that threaten our businesses even further.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we think about how tough things are in the country, our pain is that there is a lack of foreign exchange which forces us to buy it on the black market because it is not available in the banks. Now we have already got it at an abnormally high rate and now we need to declare the prices of goods to the tax authorities? This will make the prices of our commodities higher even compared with our neighbouring countries and we don\u2019t need that system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe closed our shops and travelled to submit our petitions. That is why they were peaceful because we can\u2019t destroy our own shops.\u201d<\/p>\n