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Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa

Lloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter
Government has defended its decision to control the importation of specified goods that are locally-produced saying this sought to curtail externalisation of the United States dollar and to protect the local industry.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa told Parliament during a Questions without Notice Session yesterday that the country was losing a lot of foreign currency through the importation of goods that were locally produced, let alone of better quality.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce recently gazetted import controls under Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016, featuring products drawn from across industry.

Those intending to import some of the specified goods would have to apply for licenses and justify the cause for importing of such commodities.

Some of the specified goods are Cremora coffee creamers, camphor creams, white petroleum jellies and body creams, plastic pipes and fittings, bottled water, mayonnaise, salad cream, peanut butter, jams, maheu, canned fruits and vegetables, pizza base, yoghurts, flavoured milks, dairy juice blends, ice creams, cultured milk and cheese.

Some MPs asked Minister Chinamasa to explain the rationale of introducing the regulations claiming that it was tantamount to banning importation of the said goods.

They argued that the control would negatively affect the informal sector.

“The Statutory Instrument does not ban the importation of commodities,” said Minister Chinamasa.

“It merely removes those items from the Open General Import Licence. For you to import those goods, you need to apply for a licence.”

Minister Chinamasa said Government was committed to continue supporting the informal sector through facilitating that players access credit, develop their skills and through infrastructure development.

“Currently our challenges with revenue collection arise from the fact that the economy now is highly informalised and it presents problems

“We are importing more than what we export. A lot of the hard-earned foreign currency that we make is going to buy chicken because we have over legalised foreign currency usage.

“A lot of those items, which have been removed from the Open General Licence are locally produced. The goods locally produced are of higher quality and it will be good for this House (Parliament) to support our local industry, our local manufacturers and our local economy. Please support the Buy Zimbabwe campaign,” said Minister Chinamasa.

He said Government was aware of the capacity of the local industry, hence importation controls on the same products.

Minister Chinamasa reiterated that Government was not planning to reintroduce the Zimbabwean dollar through bond notes. He said bond notes were meant to enhance money circulation and to incentivise local exporters.

Minister Chinamasa said some of the major reason was the liquidity crunch because some people did not deposit their money in banks.

“Why we are incentivising exporters is because our only source of foreign currency is exports and Diaspora remittances. Diaspora remittances are not coming in a structured way, so we have to fall back more primarily on exports. So, we need to incentivise exporters,” he said.