There is nothing to smile about here

FOR some, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube’s Mid-Term Budget Review that was presented on Thursday made a lot of sense in that it gave tax concessions, but in practical terms, it falls far short of addressing the real issues on the ground — the re-dollarisation the market is pushing the economy into.

Even for lay people, it is clear that the Zimbabwe dollar has failed, a reflection that the market is in rebellious mood.

Whatever the Finance tsar has been dabbling with to solve the quagmire the Zimbabwean economy is entangled in has failed. He should have instead based his suggestions and recommendations on obtaining market trends.

Although the Treasury chief pushed the minimum tax threshold up from $2 000 to $5 000 per month, this does not in any way give the working population the relief they expected. It has come a little too late and even then, prices of most goods and services are pegged in United States dollars, meaning any concession in Zimbabwe dollar terms may eventually turn out to be insignificant.

Tax bands have also been adjusted to begin at
$5 001 and end at $100 000, above which the highest marginal rate of 40 percent applies beginning August 1, 2020.

Zimbabweans know that the country should urgently address the production side of the economy to ensure more exports from which more foreign currency can be earned, However, they have been suffering for too long now.

What makes things worse is the corruption involving high-ranking officials that they see on a daily basis. At the end of the day, they want to put food on the table but their salaries have been eroded by inflation, which is spiralling out of control.

The politics of the country is toxic given the polarisation and factional fights in the ruling party as well as in the opposition. Dishonesty, skulduggery, outright violence, deceit and treachery, among other ills, have become the norm in the country’s politics. This will not get us anywhere.

Zimbabwe is ours together and there must be equitable distribution of resources. No one is a second-class citizen but the situation on the ground tells an entirely different story. What makes us fail to sit down and talk as brothers and sisters will surely prove to be our undoing.

People who toil honestly get punished for their transparency while those who indulge in felony actually thrive from the acts of corruption they engage in openly.