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Business Editor
TREASURY is pumping out about $15 million from Fidelity Printers and Refiners per week towards payment of small-scale miners for gold deliveries.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said this in Parliament as he praised artisanal miners for the hard work that has seen the previously “outcast” group become a major contributor to economic growth in the country.
The minister pleaded with the law enforcement agents not to arrest small-scale miners, popularly known as Amakorokoza, saying the Government was putting in place legislation to support their mining activities.
He said Government was pleased with the production and export figures in the tobacco and gold sectors.
“The artisanal miners are now contributing 45 percent to gold production. I think as of last year, we produced something like 23 metric tonnes, we fell short of our target by one tonne and of that, 45 percent is produced by artisanal miners or Amakorokoza,” he told Parliamentarians.
“We pump out about $15 million from Fidelity per week to pay those artisanal miners. They may not dress the way you think people with money should dress, but clearly they have got money.”
It is estimated that more than half a million people in Zimbabwe eke a living through small-scale gold mining while the tobacco sector alone earned the country $930 million in export receipts in 2016.
The minister acknowledged concerns over job losses in the formal sector and the high unemployment rate in the country. He attributed the trend to declining revenue across economic sectors over the years due to a combination of factors such as company closures, downsizing, falling global commodity prices and overreliance on the export of primary products.
“Yes, jobs were lost, but some jobs were created through the informal sector,” said Minister Chinamasa.
He said while the informal economy was thriving as evidenced by several individual projects in the sector, Government was concerned over failure by many players in this bracket to pay tax.
“They are not paying taxes and unless you locate them, it is very difficult to collect taxes from the informal sector. We are currently working with Zimra to come up with new strategies on how to reach out to the informal sector economic players who are contributing greatly to our Gross Domestic Product,” said the minister.
He said Government was implementing measures to grow the economy through the provision of incentives to enhance productive sectors as enunciated in the 2017 budget statement.
“We are basically looking at those who produce for export. We have come up with diversity and a variety of incentives to encourage production because that is the way to go. If you look at the budget also, we have come up with incentives to attract investors into the Special Economic Zones.
“Through the discussions we have been conducting with would-be investors, I am confident that once the budget is approved, we should be able to get somewhere. I said to the would-be investors into Special Economic Zones, look at the incentives that I have given, if you think there are any additional incentives that you think of, please come to my office and we discuss and agree on whether we should grant you those further additional incentives,” said Minister Chinamasa.
He said Government would continue spearheading the doing business reforms as part of long term efforts to improve the country’s competitiveness.
Online Reporter