By A Correspondent- Raising a point of priviledge in parliament Tuesday, MDC Vice President Tendai Biti challenged Finance Minister to disclose Government’s forex sources which was being used to finance external debt at a time the country had dumped the multi currency system.
Said Biti:
“On a point of privilege, Mr. Speaker Sir. Hon. Speaker, last week the esteemed Deputy Speaker made a ruling that the Minister of Finance and Economic Development comes and gives a Ministerial Statement on the issue of foreign currency, 60% of which is going to an item called ‘others’ which we do not know – about $2 billion.
I ask that on a point of privilege that I bring in terms of Standing Order 69, that when the Minister comes to make that Ministerial Statement, he also explains on the following –you recall Hon. Speaker that on 24th June, 2019, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development himself gazetted and enacted Statutory Instrument 142 of 29 which demonetised the regime of multiple currencies and introduced the new Zimbabwean dollar which had been introduced by SI 33 of 2019.
The following day the RBZ Governor issued an exchange control directive in respect of which he directed that all companies that had external obligations should come and report their external obligations because the Central Bank had set aside the sum of US$1.2 billion that is going to cater for this external debt that is owed by these companies.
The question that we would like the Minister of Finance and Economic Development to answer is – where is the RBZ getting this money from when we know that the central bank is broke? Mr. Speaker, this is relevant because two years down the line we do not want this Parliament to be saddled with yet another Debt Assumption Bill.