Chronicle Editor
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is consulting the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and the Public Service Commission (PSC) with a view of ascertaining “realistic” cash needs of an average Government worker and pensioner, before determining new cash withdrawal limits from banks.
RBZ last reviewed cash withdrawal limits in November last year and pegged it at $300 per week for individual account holders.
However, with continued increase in prices of goods and services, the $300 has become insufficient to meet daily cash demands for depositors. Further, it is even difficult for most depositors to access the weekly allocation from banks resulting in long queues.
“Cash is on demand as some retailers are charging less when customers are buying in cash, while some services such as transport are only charged in cash.
“Although most people are also using plastic money, exorbitant charges for both mobile money transactions and card transactions are also forcing people to prefer cash transactions.
Desperate depositors were expecting RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya to increase the withdrawal limits and inject more notes when he announced his monetary policy in February, but he did not.
“It’s (increasing of cash withdrawals) work in progress because we wanted to understand the requirements of the pensioners and the civil servants. So, we are engaging the Public Service Commission and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare to understand exactly what the payments (salaries) are like in terms of the net payment because we want to put it in the context of a payout,” Dr Mangudya told Sunday News yesterday.
He said the Central Bank was also engaging mobile network operators to consider reducing their charges for transactions made using various platforms so as to encourage the use of plastic money.
“Ordinarily we are supposed to use more of plastic money, we did our survey and realised that because of the charges which are being charged for using these (platforms) that’s what is increasing queues at the banks.
“People would want to go where there is value for their money so there is value in cash (transactions) but because of these commissions the value is eroded. So, we are also in touch with mobile network operators so that we go back to where we used to be. So, it’s a whole ecosystem that needs to be looked at,” he said.
@DNsingo
Online Reporter