Hon. Markham said the rate is not going to promote production and can you guarantee that as we pay our farmers, they are going to be able to buy inputs and also the issue of us continuing to pay farmers within the announced five days. Can you guarantee that? Hon. Member, the policy as provided under the S.I. 127 is actually meant to protect farmers. When we say we should have a predictable official exchange rate, this is promoting farmers. So where we have got the official exchange rate which at the moment is stable, it should allow farmers to plan immediately for the next summer season. I can attest and assure you that what the Government is putting forward here is meant to protect our farmers. This will allow our farmers to go back and till the land, come summer season for 2022.
In terms payments, we have religiously paid all our farmers. We are very happy that we have got a bumper harvest. Just this May, we were expecting around 54 000 metric tons but we got more than double that and we are very religious on payments. Our farmers are happy and we are paying within the five days. The only problem that we are having is that we have got some farmers that do not have bank accounts and even cell phone accounts. We have engaged our stakeholders to make sure that farmers have bank accounts, cell phone accounts where we can transfer the money to, which is part of our policy on financial inclusion.
Hon. Nduna, those accessing foreign currency from auction should charge in ZD and let it be ferried down there in Chegutu. It is true what the Hon. Member submitted that if it is a service station or a certain company that is dealing in petroleum products when they access foreign currency from the auction, they should charge in ZWD and where they are charging in foreign currency, it should be at the ruling auction rates. This is what the S.I is saying, that when you access foreign currency from the auction market, charge both in ZWD and in foreign currency.
The question from Hon. Hamauswa was a point of clarity. He wanted to know if manufacturers will sell in ZWD and how they are selecting those. This again is more or less the same question as the one for Hon. Nduna that when manufacturers access foreign currency from the auction floor, they should charge both in ZWD and in foreign currency and the ZWD price should be at the ruling auction rate. This is what is provided for in S.I. 127. In terms of selection, we have mentioned that what is guiding us is the provision of the National Development Strategy 1, where we are prioritising production. The priority list is for those who are involved in production and when we pull together those who are in production we are going to be guided by the bid range. Those with the highest bid will get the allocations first. We are also guided to make sure that the allocations is being done for bonafide manufacturers by the invoices that are provided – but again, because of some of weaknesses that are in the system, this is why you find out that some of the manufacturers end up using the money not for the intended purpose.
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