Minister to present 2017 national budget next month

Business Reporter
FINANCE and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa is expected to present the 2017 national budget early next month.

The ministry’s permanent secretary Mr Willard Manungo said the process of interrogating the submissions from different stakeholders would be complete soon.

Ministers and Parliamentarians concluded a three-day pre-budget consultation meeting in Bulawayo at the weekend.

“At the moment we are interrogating the submissions from various Government departments and ministries. We are looking forward to have the budget presented either at the end of the month or early December,” he said.

Mr Manungo said the Parliamentary pre-budget seminar was aimed at growing the economy through enhancing measures to grow revenue generation.

He said the Government, in the upcoming national budget, would also focus on growing revenue generation through Diaspora remittances.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya acknowledged in the 2016 mid-term policy statement review that Diaspora remittances were on a downward trend.

“The Governor has acknowledged Diaspora remittances as a major source of revenue and indicated that as Government we should be as facilitative as possible to improve revenue coming through Diaspora remittances as the figures were now lower than before,” he said.

The reduction in Diaspora remittances has been attributed to rapid currency depreciation in source markets against the United States dollar.

In the first half of the year, Diaspora remittances declined by 13 percent to $397,3 million compared to $457,9 million received during the corresponding period in 2015.

Diaspora remittances are a major source of liquidity in the country after exports.

As part of efforts to improve revenue inflows from the Diaspora community, RBZ has also introduced an incentive scheme at a level of between 2,5 percent and five percent for remittances coming through the formal system.

Last year, the Government licensed 34 money transfer agencies to encourage Diaspora remittances to come through the formal system.

Since the liberalisation of the economy in February 2009, the economy has been faced with a liquidity crunch and this has had a knock-on effect in stimulating productivity in the manufacturing sector.