The Sunday Mail
Howdy folks! Apart from admiring the magnificent klipspringers, clawless otters, augur buzzards and the Taita and peregrine falcons rehearsing their roles in the theatre of life at the majestic Mosi oa Tunya, our legislators and the executive will this weekend be also attending the 2016 pre-budget seminar.
The seminar is meant to enhance MPs’ contributions to the process of National Budget formulation and prioritisation.
Parliamentarians play a vital role in budget crafting as they bring views from folks from their constituencies.
At the pre-budget brief held last week, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, challenged parliamentarians to come up with innovative ideas to help the executive come up with a budget that will create wealth.
The onus would, therefore, be upon our MPs to come up with robust strategies that foster fiscal soundness and match the budget with concrete resources.
The tendency so far has been for MPs to doze in the august house as the long budget is read by the Finance Minister, and then rubber stamp it on the morrow.
It, however, cannot be denied that some of the legislators may not be technically equipped to assume a more active role in budgetary matters and to reasonably exert influence on the budget cycle.
As we are about to close the last pages of the 2015 National Budget, it is important to ask ourselves whether it achieved its theme, which was, “Towards an empowered society and inclusive growth.”
Do you feel more empowered, ten months on?
In my view, the budget did not give much to the unemployed youth who is sitting at some ghetto bridge, with a marijuana stick in his hand, a bottle of bronco in his pocket and tonnes of distresses in his heart. The budget spoke about the envisaged establishment of a Youth Employment Creation Fund, which was to be allocated on a district basis, identifying quick-win projects targeting youth in each district.
But days graduated into weeks, with weeks ripening into months – and details of that fund were never spoken of.
The Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review said nothing about that fund.
It is understandable why the budget failed to meet some of its intended objectives as a result of drifts in some key assumptions. For instance, it assumed normal rainfall for the 2014/ 15 agriculture season, which turned out otherwise. The other assumption was mobilisation of resources for public and private sector projects. Revenue collections remained an albatross on the shoulders of the taxman, with net takings for the first half of 2015 amounting to US$1,66 billion against a U$1,76 billion target.
The taxman collected US$1,72 billion for the same period last year. Given these tight liquidity conditions and persistent contractions in economic growth, an expansionary fiscal policy is indispensable for the year 2016 – to stimulate the economy. The budget must therefore come up with dynamic strategies that will foster national economic revival.
The Abuja Declaration, for instance, says that at least 15 percent of the annual budget should be allocated to Health.
However, in our case, only six percent was allocated to Health in 2015. This in a country where 37 percent of the citizenry went without treatment or medicine despite Section 76(1) of the Constitution declaring that all citizens and permanent residents have the right to access basic healthcare.
The indicative appropriation estimate for Health for 2016 in the Blue Book is only an additional US$1,4 million, still a far cry from getting to the ideal scenario.
The same goes for agriculture, where we have the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security saying that at least 10 percent of national budgetary resources must be allocated to agricultural and rural development.
However only 3,8 percent went to Agriculture, with the indicative appropriation estimate for 2016 only giving an additional US$10 million – which obviously won’t make any difference in the quest to meet this target. We are almost there in Education, where the Dakar Declaration set a 20 percent budget goal, with our allocation to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education at 19,4 percent.
There is however room for us to do more, as 36 percent of Zimbabweans are not able to send kids to school because of lack of fees or uniforms. We obviously can’t also forget that Section 75(1a) of the Constitution says every citizen and permanent resident has a right to “a basic State-funded education”.
Youths represent 67 percent of the population and they bear the brunt of the current economic challenges.
The 2011 /12 Income Consumption and Expenditure Survey established that 83,5 percent of unemployed persons are between 15 and 24-years-old.
We, therefore, cannot expect to turnaround the fortunes of this economy so long we continue to neglect the youths from adequately participating in the economic activities of the republic.
The 2016 National Budget should demonstrate strong commitment towards implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and Zim-Asset, especially by paying particular attention to social services and poverty eradication.
As was established by the Finscope Consumer Survey, that 70 percent of Zimbabweans earn US$200 or less per month, it therefore follows that they have very low disposable incomes for them to afford essential social services.
The budget must chip in, in line with the 20 /20 Initiative adopted in Copenhagen in 1995. That initiative proposes that to achieve universal coverage of basic social services, 20 percent of budgetary expenditure in developing countries and 20 percent of aid flows, on average, should be allocated to them. Next year’s budget will not be complete if it does not come up with vigorous strategies to promote exports, given that exports are our chief source of liquidity.
It is saddening to note that our imports are proliferating, which is a leakage of liquidity as we pay those foreign; while exports – which are supposed to inject new liquidity – are shrinking, leaving us with an unsustainable trade deficit.
I know many will blame that on the falling rand, but is South Africa the only export market for our products?
This over reliance on South Africa has left our exports unsustainably concentrated to the country, much to the suffering of our economy.
This is why the budget should support the export diversification agenda. Having 90 percent of our exports going to just three countries – South Africa, Mozambique and Belgium, that is – is sure a recipe for economic disaster.
I would like to encourage our MPs to find some time to interact with folk in their constituencies to hear their ideas on what the 2016 budget should be like, before rushing to witness the smoke that thunders.
See you later folks!
