Source: Chinamasa stands his ground on Parly budget – DailyNews Live
Mugove Tafirenyika 22 January 2018
HARARE – Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa has rejected calls by
lawmakers to have Parliament’s budget increased from $57 million to $100
million saying Treasury had no capacity to do so.
Legislators had noted with concern during debate that some critical areas
had been allocated insufficient resources, which undermines their
performance.
In his contribution to the debate, MDC Member of Parliament for Mkoba,
Amos Chibaya, bemoaned the budget allocated to Parliament, saying it fell
short of their expectations.
His Binga South counterpart Gabbuzza Joel Gabbuzza and Zvishavane’s John
Holder had also pointed out that that the national budget had not done
justice to the needs of the mining sector despite its significance in the
country’s economic revival.
While appreciating their concern, Chinamasa said Treasury was saddled with
a huge wage bill that has remained an albatross on its neck.
He said with more than 70 percent of the budget going towards salaries,
there was no room left for infrastructural development.
“The problem that Treasury is facing is a very simple one – too many needs
and not enough resources. That essentially is a problem. How do you
distribute too little to too many?” Chinamasa asked.
“All the income that we are receiving is going towards the payment of our
wages including ourselves and none is left for operations, which is also
an issue raised in the contributions and none left for infrastructure
development,” he said.
He said government was, however, on course to correct the structure of the
national budget.
Chinamasa said Zimbabweans must accept that until that budget structure is
revisited “we are not doing our country any good because we need
infrastructure in order to lay the foundation for our economic growth”.
“We should be setting aside at least $1, 5 billion annually towards our
infrastructure. I want us to go on a journey together, collectively,
step-by-step to get us out of the current situation and put right the
structure of our budget,” Chinamasa added.
COMMENTS