Dorcas Rumano

Government may soon purchase vehicles for Ministers and Members of Parliament (MPs), a Cabinet Minister has revealed.

Speaking during the launch of the ‘In conversation with Trevor,’ (Trevor Ncube is Alpha Media Holdings Chairman), Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube said the Government had not bought the cars for Ministers and MPs, but will do it soon.

Minister Ncube said he had managed to cut down on ‘waste’ and that it was time to attend to the vehicle issue.

Asked on the payment of import duty on vehicles using foreign currency, Minister Ncube said the levying of car import duty in foreign currency was a ‘demand management tool’ that is working very well and there was really no reason to scrap it.

The Finance Minister said the US dollar was an individual’s money which one could keep under the mattress or in their bank accounts, but it cannot be used to purchase commodities in local shops. He said nobody would be dispossessed of their foreign currency on his watch.

He also hinted on the possibility of an upward review of fuel prices saying that “the price of fuel is likely to go up, it has to be gradual, to about an equivalent of US $1.”

Minister Ncube said Government was set to launch an electronic dip stick which would monitor the fuel usage at filling stations.

 Prof Ncube also said electricity tariff would also increase, as a way of improving the supply of electricity in the country. Minister Ncube said, “We have no choice, but we have to raise the tariff.”