We applaud George, Mthuli for realising that the budget needs to be revised

Last week, the Finance,  Economic Development and Investment Promotion Professor Mthuli Ncube delivered his 2024 national budget, which was yesterday teared  off by  multiple economists and business executives who  claimed the proposals  were harsh  and discriminatory  against the poor  and  businesses.

But yesterday, Professor Ncube and the ministry’s permanent secretary, George Guvamatanga, staged a massive retreat in response to a torrent of criticism directed at his budget. We applaud them for backing down in the face of intense backlash over  a budget described as anti-poor.

Guvamatanga conceded that the Treasury is able to fine-tune the measures as part of the process. In the end, we must review and improve the measures to ensure that they make sense, regardless of whether they are legal, technical, or political, Guvamatanga said yesterday.

“We have to quickly adjust some of the measures before the year ends as some will be effective on January 1 2024. The purpose is for us to refine the budget because the budget is for the people,” Guvamatanga said.

He added: “We do not need to be misled by the political rhetoric which say this is not a budget for the poor. For us as Treasury to support the poor we need resources, we have to argue how we get the resources but only have to be understood that the revenue proposals that we have put forward are the ones supporting the expenditures, so if you remove any single revenue measure you also have to understand that you also have to remove all the expenditures, it’s not one sided.”

The public’s concerns about the budget were also acknowledged by Professor Ncube.

“Let me start with the comments about the budget being anti-people,  not so pro-people. You know that the government spends large amounts on agriculture.  In the agriculture sector we look at the  Pfumvudza where we provide inputs and this program is now world-wide, it’s recognised as a very effective agriculture  system.  The majority of farmers benefiting from Pfumvudza are women so we are very pro-people.

“(George) Guvamatanga will correct the zeros so when we say to the sugar people give us either US$0.02  so that we create a cancer fund,  what we are looking for as a government is a cancer fund so that we can buy cancer equipment. It means we are pro-people. And the biggest part of the budget is going to the education sector; this means we are for the people,” Ncube said.

 

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