Anybody earning less than $4 500 a month is being punished as the poverty datum lie is now $4 483, the Member of Parliament for Dzivaresekwa Edwin Mushoriwa said this week.
Speaking during the debate on the 2020 budget Mushoriwa said Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube should raise the tax threshold from $2 000 to $4 500 because that was now the poverty datum line.
“Anybody that is earning $4 500 or less is being punished in this country. To that extent, I want the Hon. Minister to consider that,” he said.
Ncube said the $2 000 threshold was reached after a survey and “extensive consultation”.
“On the threshold itself, Hon. Mushoriwa says why $2000, it should be $4 500. As I said, again we have done a survey and we found out that this $2000 is appropriate,” Ncube said.
“Also, one thing that I should never do as a policy maker of my position is to chase inflation whenever you are doing these kinds of adjustments. If you do you might think you are chasing inflation but actually you are adding to it by trying to catch up with or trying to get ahead of it.
“You should always stay behind it but also it turns out that $2000 is a product of the survey that we did; we think that it is appropriate.”
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