Claver Nyuki

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube has assured the business community that Government will not enforce price controls as it may cause economic mayhem.

Prof Ncube said this while giving oral evidence to committees on Budget and Finance at the Senate House at the Parliament Building in Harare.

"The temptation is to enforce price controls but we want to assure the business community that Government will not enforce price controls as it will be detrimental to the country's economy.

"Government is working on policies to stabilize the parallel exchange rate which in turn will normalise prices," he said.

Speaking at the same platform, Minister Ncube said Government could not pay its civil servants in foreign currency as it did not have control over the US dollar but made assurances that Government was working on monetary and non-monetary incentives to cushion its employees.

Minister Ncube said, "We will continue to look at the welfare of civil servants with monetary and non monetary incentives a priority.

"We have a package that we will be presenting to civil servants with the Zupco initiative being one of the many incentives lined up for civil servants."

Speaking on the leakages at the tobacco auction floors, Minister Ncube highlighted that Government was aware of 'Makoronyeras' who were illegally buying tobacco directly  from farmers without licenses and bringing it to the floors as they had inside people at the floors and assured that Police were making arrests and that perpetrators would be prosecuted. He also revealed that Government had raised surveillance at border points to detect illegal gold traders from exiting the country.

Minister Ncube assured the nation that the multi currency system would remain in place and that his Ministry will be presenting a Budget Review and Supplementary Budget in July.