Mthuli Ncube’s 2024 budget concessions in full

Mr. Speaker Sir, I do not want to leave any interest in points out. I am just going to run through the comments from the Committee Chairs and Members of Parliament. I am looking at Committee from Budget and Finance under Hon. Chiduwa. I think the issue there was the ZIMRA budget and that is one thing I wanted us to act on and then the Youth budget, we have dealt with that. DMTT was complementary sugar tax, we have dealt with the adjustment. On the wealth tax, we have made the adjustments and the comments. Passport fees, we have made an adjustment.

Turning on to Hon. Mudekunye, Industry and Commerce Chair, he made a comment about rural industrialisation. We will not have a policy that any company that establish a facility in the rural area in processing in value addition or whatever they are doing, we will accord them special economic zone status. We have that policy but the industry had been slow to take it up but it exists. We are supporting the rural industrialisation that way. We have been requested to have a budget allocation for ZITF, we will do it and we agree Hon. Mudekunye.

On Environment and Climate, the issue there was to make sure that we pay the carbon collections to EMA and we agree. On Tourism and Hospitality, we have dealt with the budget and we have increased it so that we should do something about that. The Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, the big point was about the budget for the Auditor General’s office which we have increased. So, Auditor General’s Budget has been increased, again on the request of the Chair of the Committee and other contributors. On ICT, Postal Services, again we responded to this.  I must say that for this Ministry, the budget is actually kind of split because we have got the Ministry itself and then we also have the department that deals with ICT issues under the Office of the President and Cabinet.  So, some of the budget tends to split.  Therefore, when we look at it, we need to look at those two together to see how much we really allocate to the ICT sector.  Besides, this is a profitable sector for commerce, for private operators, so investors also play their part in investing in ICT.  I have also taken note of the arrears of $31 billion on TelOne.  Again, it is one of those arrear issues that we are going to deal with as we rationalise this issue.

The Chair on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, I think a big issue here was raised.  The recommendation came on the fact that we have included the USD300 as normal salary which is pensionable, but a point was made about the review of salaries for the uniformed forces, making sure that again, we comply with military salary concepts, I agree with this.  I think we have started on that concept.  I have worked hard I must say, but the issue has been the erosion of the Zimdollar component.  That is the issue, but in terms of the items, currently, Defence Forces have about 11 items under the military salary concept that we are trying to capture.  Special Services, I think it is about seven issues and then Police and Prisons cover again about 7/8 areas.  I am not free to say it publicly what they are, but if you ask me in private, I will tell you, certain areas that we cover.  I will give an example; it matters whether you are a paratrooper or not.  If you are a paratrooper, it is considered to be more dangerous, so you are given an allowance.  Also, if you are a marksman, it matters whether you really shoot straight or you do not shoot straight.  So, it is better you rather shoot straight so that you get an allowance for more accurate shooting.  We are really trying to impress the military, maybe we need to do more and we will look into it. 

The issue about BEAM that there are arrears, these need to be cleared.  They will be cleared. Digitalisation under the Media and Broadcasting Services, I agree.  The Chair for Justice, and Legal Affairs, again making sure that the judges are more comfortable, they need to be better paid, allowances, housing and vehicles, et cetera.  I think we have tried, especially on accommodation and vehicles, we really tried.  I know that the magistrates, I think and Prisons are also included in the salary that we call staff retention scheme.

Continued next page

(141 VIEWS)