(Bloomberg) -- Delta Corp., a Zimbabwean beer maker and Coca-Cola Co. bottler, lost an appeal to pay $55 million of taxes in local currency, with the nation’s top court ordering the company to remit in US dollars.
The Supreme Court upheld a High Court decision after rejecting Delta’s case that the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority had not properly computed the company’s tax liabilities. The tribunal ruled that the company has to pay levies in foreign currencies for sales made in greenbacks.
Most Zimbabwean companies sell goods in US dollars after the national currency was scrapped in 2009 following government mismanagement of the economy, including a failed land reform policy, that unleashed hyperinflation. Six attempts to reinstate a national currency have been made since then, with the latest being a gold-backed unit known as the ZiG that was launched in April.
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President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration has been encouraging residents to start using the new currency since its introduction. Mnangagwa suggested earlier this month that by 2026 the ZiG could be the nation’s sole currency.
The local franchisee of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s Castle Lite beer had argued that it paid its taxes using the then Zimbabwe dollar from March 2019 until October 2021. Delta transitioned its reporting currency to US dollar from the Zimbabwean dollar earlier this year.
It reported a profit of $100.5 million in the year ending March from $63.1 million a year earlier.
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--With assistance from Desmond Kumbuka.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
