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Herald Reporter
Government has increased the Tax free threshold to $5,000 up from $2,000 while those earning above $100,000 will pay 40 percent tax.

This was said by Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube in Parliament today where he is presenting the Mid-term Policy Review.

He told Parliament that growth for mining sector is now projected to slow-down to -4.1 percent in 2020, reflecting the impact of COVID-19 and other challenges including perceptions around retentions, erratic power supply and loss of skills in the mining sector.

On the manufacturing sector, Minister Ncube told Parliament that the COVID-19 pandemic has also depressed the performance of the manufacturing industry by restricting production, distribution and the consumption of goods and services, among other factors. It also caused input supply disruptions in source markets and hence, the sector is expected to contract by -10.8 percent in 2020 against 1.9 percent originally projected

He said Government continued to prioritise road rehabilitation programme under which the Harare-Beitbridge road got $321 million leading to much faster progress in construction works. The target is to achieve 200km by year end.

Minister Ncube said Internet usage increased by 2.8 percent to 6 661 tera-bytes in the first quarter of 2020, from 6 489 tera-bytes recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019, driven by the substitution of voice traffic and print media by over the top serves (OTTs) and online publication.

He reported that the COVID-19 mitigation measures were further expected to enhance mobile data and internet usage for remote working driven by corporates and government, as well as online education.

“Transport and communication sector is projected to grow by 3.2 percent in 2020, driven by enhanced communication activities that is offsetting the dampening effect of the transport sub-sector,” he told Parliament.