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Cde Patrick Chinamasa

Oliver Kazunga Business Reporter
THE much-awaited 2014 national budget is expected to be announced by Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa on Thursday next week. According to a news report monitored on ZBC TV on Monday night, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Willard Manungo said the date for the budget had been set for December 19.

Traditionally, the fiscal policy statement is presented in November but this year Treasury departed from the practice to pave way for extensive consultations that were delayed by the July 31 harmonised elections.

The shift from the traditional practice has however stirred anxiety within industry and other stakeholders who view the departure from the November budget announcement timeline as due to indecisiveness on the part of the government.

However, announcement of the upcoming fiscal policy statement comes amid high expectations that the budget would be able to address socio-economic issues affecting people in Zimbabwe as well as restoring industrial activity in Bulawayo, the country’s once industrial hub.

The Affirmative Action Group (AAG) national vice president Sam Ncube has said they were concerned with the continued demise of Bulawayo industries due to a host of challenges facing the economy.

Lack of working capital, intermittent power supplies, stiff competition from imported products as well as antiquated machinery were some of the fundamentals threatening industrial recovery.

Against this background, a number of Bulawayo companies such as National Blankets, Archer Clothing, Security Mills and Merlin were under judicial management while others were placed under liquidation.

Ncube said the agenda of their meeting with Minister Chinamasa in the next few weeks after the announcement of the budget would be determined by how the minister would have tackled constraints facing ailing industries in the city.

In the past few years, Bulawayo has suffered massive de-industrialisation with about 100 firms shutting down resulting in more than 20,000 people becoming redundant.

A national budget spells out government policy, plans, activities and guidelines allowing stakeholders such as industry and commerce to plan. For instance planning based on issues to do with Value Added Tax, excise duty and Pay As You Earn.

The upcoming fiscal policy statement is the first by the Zanu-PF government following the end of tenure of the inclusive government that came into power in 2009 when a power sharing agreement was brokered between Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations.

Minister Chinamasa faces a mammoth task in coming up with a budget whose measures would be critical to end perennial economic challenges such as liquidity constraints that existed during the inclusive government’s tenure.