Zimbabwe lifts duty on basic goods
3/12/2008 17:36
The Zimbabwean government has lifted import duty on basic commodities to
make them available and affordable ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays,
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono has said.
The central bank
chief yesterday told delegates attending a National Economic Consultative Forum
workshop that the new policy will be gazetted later this week.
Gono said the
government also increased by 10 percent foreign currency retention levels to 85
percent for shops licensed to sell goods in foreign currency with the view to
promote bulk importation of basic commodities, the Herald reported
today.
This means shops selling goods in foreign currency will be liquidating
15 percent of their earnings to the central bank at the prevailing rate.
Gono
said the scrapping of import duty on basic commodities was meant to complement
the Foreign Exchange Licenced Warehouses and Retail Shops by ensuring increased
supply of goods.
"It is imperative that the government constantly intervenes
and cushion consumers against food shortages. And I believe this is the best
Christmas present we can present to consumers this festive season," said
Gono.
Participants at the meeting applauded the government for making a
timely intervention at a time when most basic commodities were now beyond the
reach of many owing to high prices.
Gono implored the business community to
import many basic commodities to make them affordable to the majority of
Zimbabweans who are currently living below the Poverty Datum Line.
"Now that
the import duty restrictions have been suspended, the onus is now on the private
sector to import and flood the market with cooking oil, margarine, rice and
flour to ease the burden for consumers," he said.
The government, through the
central bank, has in the past.
made several measures to protect the
vulnerable and some of these measures include the provision of Basic Commodities
Supply Side Interventions and the provision of farming implements to resettled
farmers.
Zimbabwe is facing acute food shortages. The United Nations
estimates that at least US$500 million will be needed to avert hunger in the
country between now and the next harvest in April.
Xinhua
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