Slash civil servants allowances: Cross

Andile Tshuma, Chronicle Reporter
BULAWAYO South MP Eddie Cross has said Government should slash civil servants allowances to reduce Government expenditure.

The MP said this in Parliament on Tuesday during a debate on the recently presented 2016 annual budget review and the 2017 economic outlook statement.

Mr Cross said the country has to reduce expenditure on salaries to less than 60 percent of revenue.

“Mr Speaker, that could be achieved quite easily by simply cancelling allowances for civil servants. In fact, if we cancel the allowances for civil servants we could increase salaries. The reality is that allowances are not taxed, and salaries are. This could increase the tax revenue to the State and it would bring our expenditure on personnel down below the threshold of 60 percent,” he said.

Mr Cross said there was a need for government to re-examine priorities and focus more on necessities to improve the fiscal situation.

The MP emphasised the need for the government to spend less than what it receives in revenue.

“Mr Speaker, in addition to this, we have to re-examine our priorities in terms of expenditure overall. We have to recognise that we have to cut our suit to match our cloth.

“This means that we have to recognise that our revenues have been running at about US$3, 5 billion and we have been spending US$4, 8 billion.

Expenditure this year could exceed US$5 billion and there is absolutely no growth in revenues,” he said.

Mr Cross said there is a need to maximise on revenues from the country’s border posts.

He said the country was losing potential revenue at border posts due to some leakages as figures of import duties and actual revenues did not tally.

“In addition, for some four years now, we have pointed out that if you look at the customs revenue from our border posts, we are collecting less than five percent of our import and export trade in the form of customs duties. Mr Speaker that is a ridiculous figure and it points to massive leakages at the border posts on a scale which simply staggers the imagination. Last year, we imported US$1.4 billion worth of motor vehicles,” Mr Cross said.

“If you take the customs duty on that alone, it exceeds $600 million, more than double the total customs revenue on all trade. This suggests to me Mr Speaker that we should be able to push our border revenue from US$384 million a year, to something approaching a billion without affecting any other sectors of the Zimbabwean economy.”

@andile_tshuma