(Ecofin Agency) - The government of Zimbabwe has decided to impose taxes on the 300,000 black farmers that benefited from the agrarian reform established in the 2000s by President Robert Mugabe, state-run newspaper The Herald reported on November 16.

These farmers who were just awarded lands expropriated from white farmers will have to pay a leasing fee as well as a tax of 3-10 dollars per acre/yr. These taxes are to officially be used to finance the maintenance of roads in the agricultural zones.

These taxes are a first since Robert Mugabe rise to power. This, according to experts, is proof of the bad state of the country’s public finances.

Zimbabwe’s economy struggles to rise after the grave crisis subsequent to the implementation of an agrarian reform that saw white farmers expropriated their lands, and the adoption of indigenization laws which states that majority stakes of a company (51%) are to be held by Zimbabweans who belong to the black majority.

For many years now, Zimbabwe has indeed been experiencing hyper-inflation, endemic unemployment, and generalized food shortages.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Southern African country’s GDP growth should not exceed 1.5% in 2015 against the 3.2% initially forecast.