eBusiness Weekly
There were few dramatic changes in the Government’s budget for next year presented by Minister of Finance and Economic Development Patrick Chinamasa, and few could have realistically expected anything more than a bit of tinkering with tax law.
But what came over very clearly is a new seriousness in the Government. Expenditure is to be brought under tight control, for a start. Tighter accounting and monitoring, coupled with enforcement, will reduce waste in many areas. One interesting change was giving the Auditor General ability to enforce. As Minister Chinamasa noted, in far more formal language, we have a first-class watch dog who has been barking her warnings; now she can bite too.
Cutting the number of ministries to 21, as President Mnangagwa has already done, will reduce civil service numbers marginally since the bulk of those on the State payroll are in education, health, agriculture and the security services, areas where cuts are undesirable. But there will be notable savings in the total headquarters staff.
Slashing the numbers entitled to Government cars, business-class travel and free trips as members of delegations on foreign travel might not produce a huge saving for each item, but when all these are added up there will be a surprising total of savings. Many companies, in these days of tight margins, have learned over the last few years that cost control can be a very effective way of remaining in business; shaving a few percent of each item on a long list produces totals that can amaze.
The second set of measures are the amnesties for tax delinquents and those who have externalised currency illegally, the second already announced by the President.
But the tax and currency authorities need to pass the word to offenders, most of whom they know or suspect, that they are not anonymous and they really do need to visit Zimra or the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, or both, come clean and work out how they are going to take advantage of this once-off chance to stay out of jail or at least avoid fines and penalties. Some personal calls will help get the message across.
Parliament, where the Government has a comfortable majority, is also going to have to move into fast forward to amend laws that hamper business with no redeeming reason. Again there is no real opposition to the main outline, but a lot of work in examining the details and pushing through the best possible changes.
There is general consensus in Zimbabwe, from the lady in the back seat of the kombi to the captains of industry, of what needs to be done and Minister Chinamasa did a lot to accept that consensus, flesh it out and put it in the Budget.
Minister Chinamasa also brought up the need to re-engage the international community and our partners. If they accept that Zimbabwe and its Government are now serious, they will be serious. If they think that Zimbabwe is just talk and no action then we will find little help. His budget answers many of the questions asked outside Zimbabwe, and again fleshes out the statements of the President.
So, and this is the question that many will be asking, is the Government serious about implementing the programmes and reforms in the Budget? Well the Budget follows a number of statements and actions of the new President and turns an outline into detail of how we move forward in a new economic era. Those details provide the blueprint.
And the Government has another deadline. When President Mnangagwa took over the top job he made it clear that the elections would go ahead as scheduled soon after the middle of next year. In effect he told the people that both he and his Government were on probation for seven or eight months.
With the new general consensus, there are few significant ideological differences between the Government and the opposition parties now, although the Government programme is considerably more detailed with I’s dotted and t’s crossed.
So people will be looking for the team that can deliver. To paraphrase the over-quoted words of Deng Xiaoping, people will not be worried about the colour of the cat they vote for; they will be assessing which of the cats presenting themselves to the electorate can actually catch the mice. And a President and his Government who are delivering on the programmes they present obviously have a head start.
