via Budget Delays Cause Economic Anxiety 04.11.2013 by Chris Gande for VOA Zimbabwe
The delay by the Ministry of Finance to present next year’s national budget has further added anxiety to a country on an economic knife edge, economists have warned.
Finance Minister, Mister Patrick Chinamasa, is quoted by The Herald as having said he needs more time to consult before presenting the budget, which is traditionally done in November every year.
Mr. Chinamasa told a pre-budget consultative seminar in Victoria Falls that he needed more time to consult and that he could be ready either next month or even January next year.
“We don’t have a budget statement in November. I need more time, possibly in December, but we will meet the constitutional requirement of doing it by January 2014,” said Mr. Chinamasa.
Some companies are reported to have slashed their working week by a couple of days as they wait for the presentation of the budget. On the other hand, workers will have to wait a little bit longer to know their tax-free bonus threshold while the budget is being hammered out.
Political commentator, Charles Mangongera, who is also the director of Policy and Research in the Movement for Democratic Changed formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai, said the delay in presenting the budget shows the failure of sustainable economic policies by the Zanu-PF government.
COMMENTS
China-masa can’t sleep at night. The delay is cos trying to get fidelity printing press out of mothballed cranked up raring to go and…guess what else guys
China-masses things delaying the budget can be a solution. Some things are not changing soon eg.the boy can’t do much about the idealism v realism, there is no room to stretch the employee tax bank, Zimbabweans now know the animal called ZPF government and are now more cunning than ZPF government. They ll evade as much tax as they can. Lastly, its nightmare to account for the sum of diamonds in the budget becoz chicken will be forced to come home to roast. We were not born yesterday, tisu vana jenandebvu vacho
Emulation of Biti backfires.let them rig the budget. Maybe come 1 January our beloved zim dollar will be back, that way it will be very easy to do the budjet.
My Patrick Chinamasa resign, you can not bare this burden alone. You can not sacrifice your health and life trying to fix a vehicle that will never start off. This is a 1924 Model Vauxhall, it will not start. There are no more parts for this vehicle.
A company slashing its working week “by a couple days” because the budget announcement has been delayed, what a joke. The minister is by law expected to announce the budget by not later than January, he has not broken the law and he has justified his delay.
We are planning to announce the mother of all budgets. The announcement will have enough for everyone, salary increases, manufacturing sector revival, diamond looters will also have something, more MIG fighter jets (preparing for RENAMO), educational books, road repair, and new tollfull freeways and urban robots, psychomotor also needs money. Do not despair my humble people, the delay is only to ensure that all and sundry are not forgotten. This will be an all encompassing budget. We just have to make sure we keep Jealous Mawarire under phone surveillance lest he decides to do another of his constitutional-rights-issue-thing again. If he does we may have no choice but to announce a budget even if it may not be able cater for everyone. It is paramount to follow the constitution although it may infringe on other people’s rights as long as Jealous Mawarire’s rights are protected.
its inorder to have enough time, he must be allowed more time ,because he is about two months only in that office.
there is no hurry in Zim. remember we survived for close to a year without a government in Zimbabwe before the GNU. So this chinamasa guy can use the experience he acquired when he was the care taker Minister of finance. I hope he is not going to tell us the new minister of mines is not remitting diamonds money.Instead of $600 000 000 that was forcasted by Mpofu and later revised to $48 000 000. The new Mines minister must multiply this figure by 10. Now that the Bitis of this world are out the picture. The civil servants will have their salaries increased including the newly announced token of appreciation for thier resilience.
It’s not the time factor but there is no capital to work on .
Foreign investors are no longer just companies from western countries. Most fierce competitors come from countries like China, India, Mexico, the Middle East, Nigeria, as well as South Africa.Africa needed “quality” investors as well as expertise and capital injections to extract the resources that it boosts of having.And if we make unreasonable demands, the quality investors do not quarrel with you, they just leave quietly, and you will be left to the mercy of chancers, or bottom feeders, who promise you the moon, and deliver nothing, and also rip you off.THIS IS EXACTLY OUR CURRENT SITUATION OF OUR BLESSED NATION. ONLY THE ZANU-PF PEOPLE ENJOY THEIR LIVES. WHAT ABOUT US ?
I do not care what colour the cat is, as long as it catches mice.Blood is red, the sky is blue and U.S dollars are green for everyone.The ‘mice’ are ‘decent jobs’ and some food on our tables.