Published: 03 March 2014

A proposed 15 percent levy on Zimbabwe's platinum exports equated to a "punishment" that threatened the industry, the country's mining lobby said this week.

In December last year the government proposed a tax on shipments of unrefined platinum that would apply from January 1 this year. The levy would be "ill-timed, distortionary and reduces export competitiveness", the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines said in a document submitted to a parliamentary committee and obtained by Bloomberg News.

"With the platinum price already depressed, compounded by other challenges, this will hamper viability of the platinum sub-sector," reads the document.

- Bloomberg

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