2016 budget presentation set for Thursday

Hon. Chinamasa Minister of Finance 

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa presents the 2016 national budget this Thursday in what analysts say he will have to play a delicate balancing act.

The major challenge according to analysts lies in the distribution of scarce resources for consumption versus capital projects that stimulate production.

Cde Chinamasa presents the 2016 national budget on the back drop of a dwindling fiscal space.

Minister Chinamasa will be confronted with a slowdown of industrial production, addressing the high cost of doing business, increasing competitiveness and tackling the country’s huge external debt as well as government’s high wage bill.

Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer Mr Christopher Mugaga believes the forthcoming budget should not be allocative in nature but focus on managing the policy environment for business to thrive.

“We have expectations on how the Finance Minister will handle the US$1.8 billion debt which has a deadline of June. Then there is the aspect of the US dollar where the dollar in Washington is different from the dollar in Zimbabwe. Its weaker on the Zimbabwe part so how can this be revised to address the cost of doing business,” said Mugaga.

For Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries vice president Mr Sifelani Jabangwe, government must continue with pro-industry interventions that have positively transformed sectors such as dairy, edible oils and baking.

"The recent Manufacturing Sector Survey showed a decline in capacity but had such interventions not been put in place industry would have been far worse of,” Mr Jabangwe said.

Zimbabwe Farmers Union executive director Paul Zakariya says access to funding and infrastructure development in agriculture must be enhanced.

Despite scarcity of resources, there is no shortage of expectations from the 2016 budget.

Other expectations from industry include more clarity on the indigenisation policy, speeding up creation of Special Economic Zones, the way forward regarding the energy situation, improving efficiency in parastatals, enacting measures to curb rampant smuggling, harnessing informal sector revenues and capitalising the Grain Marketing Board.   ZBC News