Mthuli Ncube To Announce Measures To Promote ZiG Currency
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has said the Treasury will soon announce additional measures to support the 2024 Monetary Policy Statement (MPS), reported Business Weekly.
The major highlight of the MPS was the introduction of a structured currency, the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) which replaced the Zimbabwe dollar in both electronic and physical forms, commonly referred to as RTGS and bond notes, respectively.
The new currency is backed by a combination of foreign currency and gold reserves held by the central bank and will co-circulate with other foreign currencies in the economy.
Responding to questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday on the 2024 Monetary Policy Statement (MPS), Minister Ncube said:
The statement is coming. Just be patient with me and we will make the announcement sooner.
In the fullness of time, we will announce specific services that can be purchased in ZiG as we seek to promote the demand for our local currency.
We will be very specific when we announce as to which fees and taxes will be paid in ZiG beyond the request that corporates pay in domestic currency.
Ncube said that there was a need to give businesses time to adapt following the recent tax adjustments detailed in the 2024 National Budget Statement. He said:
There will be more coming through. You know, we have just gone through what I will call a very gruelling period Madam Speaker Ma’am since the announcement of the 2024 Budget with various tax measures and so forth, making adjustments, sugar content tax, this and that.
We did not want as fiscal authorities, to start announcing further things on the fiscal front. We have just gone through that. We think the industry is fairly comfortable now.
We want to make sure they are accountable so that they can continue to employ more people to grow exports and so forth.
I did not want to start imposing further fiscal measures immediately. We will do those gradually over time but something is coming.
That is the reason why we held back on announcing a few fiscal measures after having gone through fiscal measures through the 2024 Budget.
Economist Gift Mugano recently said that Ncube should promptly present fiscal measures that complement the monetary policy statement.
Mugano said Ncube should not delay presenting his mid-term budget review in July or exclusively favour the use of USD over ZiG.
He said Treasury should immediately direct fuel, all duties, taxes, levies and fees including government services such as passports, birth certificates, death certificates, and other statutory payments to Government to be in ZiG.
Mugano also called for a downward review of taxes and the elimination of some tax heads such as the sugar tax, among other interventions.
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