Zimbabwe to crack down on businesses using black market rates this week

*THE HON. SPEAKER:  Hon. Minister, all these questions are directing you to do your job on this aspect.  People are suffering.

HON. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA:  Hon. Minister, perhaps you could explain to the House what is the thinking behind not getting receipts that are foreign currency denominated.  Why does it make sense that when you go into a shop, they are using an exchange rate so that they can give you a receipt in RTGs and yet this particular Government is desperate for foreign currency?  Why can they not make it a law that when you pay in US dollars, your receipt is in US dollars so that when they are charged tax, they are also charged in US dollars.  We do not understand why we are even having this debate around the exchange rate when we should just be getting the people in the shops to record my money in US dollars because I give them hard cash.  Why are they operating like they are banks?

HON. CHIDUWA: Thank you Hon. Speaker.  What the Hon. Member raised is very fundamental.  Businesses are collecting revenue on behalf of the Government and they are supposed to remit the revenue in the currency of trade which then means if they trade in USD, they are supposed to issue a receipt in USD.

However, when we were doing our research, we discovered that the big shops are having a systems problem.  They engaged ZIMRA and all of them were given up to this Friday, that is from next Monday they are supposed to be compliant so that if one buys in USD, they are supposed to be given a receipt in USD.  If it is in local currency, then they should be given a receipt in ZWL.  So, we are working on it and I am sure from Monday, we should be seeing changes.  I thank you.

HON. MUSHORIWA: My supplementary emanates from the response that the Minister said when he was asked.  He said that he had actually set a Committee to ensure that there is compliance.  Now, I wanted the Minister to advise us in this House, given the performance of the auction system that we have witnessed that a major chunk of the people that are applying for foreign currency on the auction system are failing to get that money.  Only a smaller percentage is able to access that money.  Would there be justification to then set a Committee to supervise the bulky of the people that are failing to access cheaper forex from the auction system?  What is the Government doing to ensure that everybody who wants the money gets it?

HON. CHIDUWA: In terms of those who are applying for forex in the auction market, the majority are actually getting the money.  We can check the statistics which are clearly showing that the majority are getting the funds.  The allocations of funds are allocated according to the bid price which you submit.  Those who participate in the market are not allocated funds according to the weighted auction rate.

You are allocated funds according to your bid rate, if you bid at 1:100 and then if your line of business is in the priority areas, you also get priority.  So, I think if we check all our statistics, you will see that the majority are getting the funds.  The 20% that we are using, the auction is self sustaining at the moment.  I thank you.

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