adminParliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion chairperson Mr Paddy Zhanda said the seminar would raise issues that Finance Minister Tendai Biti should consider in his next budget.
“We will gather here (Victoria Falls) next month for the pre-budget seminar. The seminar will involve a number of stakeholders including Government officials, House of Assembly members to unpack and debate the national budget,” he said in a recent interview in Victoria Falls where the committee was conducting public hearing on the 2013 national budget.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti is expected to present the 2013 national budget on 15 November.
It is hoped that the seminar will afford the stakeholders a platform to scrutinise input gathered by the committee during the public hearings it recently conducted countrywide.
Following the promulgation of the Public Finance Management Act by Government, the national budget requires that the public give Parliament adequate information on their priorities before the fiscal statement is presented.
At the moment, the economy is faced with a number of challenges, which have led to the underperformance of revenue inflows into the Treasury.
As a result of limited fiscal space, Minister Biti in July revised downwards the national budget from $4 billion to $3,6 billion a development that dashed civil servants’ hopes of a wage increase this year.
In the next fiscal statement, Finance Minister is faced with a challenge to improve civil service workers’ salaries as well as allocating significant resources for the general elections slated at the end of March 2013.
In addition, the Minister is expected not to give a blind eye to the productive sectors of the economy such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter