President assents to 2015 Budget

Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
President Mugabe has assented to the 2015 National Budget passed by Parliament last month. The announcement was made by the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda yesterday in General Notice 4 of 2015 published in an Extraordinary Government Gazette on Wednesday.

“The following laws, which have been assented to by His Excellency the President, are published in terms of section 131 (6) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, Appropriation (2015) Act, 2014 (Non 10 of 2014) and Finance (No3) Act, 2014 (No 11 of 2014),” he said.

The Appropriation Act gives effect to the allocations that were made to ministries and Government departments, while the Finance Act makes amendments to some laws to conform to the policy announcements that were made by Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa when he presented the Budget.

The 2015 National Budget is mainly policy-driven and seeks to create an enabling environment that will promote meaningful partnerships between Government, the private sector and international investors.

During debate on the Appropriation Bill that sets Expenditure Estimates, most legislators complained that the money allocated to the ministries was inadequate and would derail efforts to turnaround the economy.

Minister Chinamasa, however, reiterated that the major emphasis was to grow the economy to ensure adequate allocations to various ministries and Government departments.

Some of the policy issues announced in the Budget include increased focus on confidence-building, retention of the multi-currency system, increased taxes on unprocessed diamonds, platinum, ban on exports of unrefined gold, formalisation of artisanal mining and clarification on the implementation of the indigenisation policy so that it becomes sector specific and reduce misconceptions about the programme.

The Budget also seeks to recapitalise the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe with between $150 million and $200 million by March this year, using a loan guaranteed by the Afreximbank as a way of restoring confidence in the financial markets.

About $100 million will also be mobilised to restart the interbank market, while $20 million will be sought to demonitise Zimbabwe dollar bank balances.