Why Zimbabwe is cracking down on black market pricing

HON. PETER MOYO: Madam Speaker Ma’am, may the Hon. Minister shed light on the monetary value of the tickets that were issued yesterday as to how much was collected? Is the Ministry or the RBZ getting support from the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industry?

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MAVETERA): Hon. Moyo, you now have two questions which are not related – can you please ask one point of clarity which is specific to what exactly.

HON. PETER MOYO: Thank you Madam Speaker. May I ask the Hon. Minister to explain to the House on the extent of success in giving penalty to those people who are mischievous, businesses which are undisciplined, how much was collected yesterday? Thank you.

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MAVETERA): If you are going to say how much was collected I am a bit worried about that question. Maybe you wanted to know the value.

HON. PETER MOYO: Let me clarify Madam Speaker. May I know the value of the penalty for arbitrage? Thank you.

HON. CHIDUWA: Thank you so much for the question. We have quite a range of penalties, depending on the offence. I can give the first one where a corporate goes to the auction floor and obtains foreign currency and use it for any other use which was not intended at the time of application. The penalty for that is at least Z$1 million or the equivalent of the foreign currency that was obtained from the auction floor. In terms of not accepting both the ZS and the foreign currency, the penalty is Z$50 000 or the value of the product that was sold but we will take whichever is higher. There are quite a number of penalties that are there and so, if you can be able to get the S.I., you will see that there are so many fines; I think they are more than ten and I am not sure which is which, and the money is in RTGs but there is the element of whichever is higher.

HON. A. NDEBELE: Madam Speaker, if you may allow me to request that the Minister brings a statement because I see it is really a pregnant S.I. to explain the mischief that the S.I. seeks to arrest so that we will have enough time to seek clarification. If you may allow us to request for that. Thank you.

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MAVETERA): Order Hon. Ndebele. That is in order Hon. Ndebele for the Ministerial Statement from the Ministry of Finance. However, we are still waiting also for the S.I. to be coming through to the House according to the procedure so that at least we can be able to approve it as Parliament. So, let us wait for that Ministerial Statement from the Minister of Finance.

HON. T. MLISWA: On a point of clarity Madam Speaker. I heard you saying the parliamentary procedure which is important. So you are talking about the Parliamentary Legal Committee must now look at it immediately. It must sit tomorrow and reject it. We have the power in this House to reject it. May you then direct the Parliamentary Legal Committee to sit as soon as possible tomorrow, interrogate it and hopefully to be rejected. Parliament has teeth and we must show the nation that we have teeth to protect the people. That is an ambush way of going about things, a mafia approach to economics which we will not allow. So may the Parliamentary Legal Committee through its functions look at it? Thank you.

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