Mining sector advocates for more forex
THE Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe (CoMZ) says engagements with the Government are ongoing to ensure mining houses receive sufficient foreign currency to meet their import requirements.
The mining industry is one of the economic pillars expected to drive the country towards an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
The extractive sector alone is set to realise US$12 billion annually by 2023.
“We are engaging Government to make sure that we have sufficient foreign currency to import and our engagements have been very broad,” CoMZ chief executive officer, Mr Isaac Kwesu, said.
He was responding to questions from Business Chronicle after international media reports that mining companies were seeking permission to pay taxes and royalties in local currency.
Bloomberg had indicated this week that the request came after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) had compelled them to convert more of their foreign exchange revenues at official rates.
However, Mr Kwesu could not be drawn to comment further on the Bloomberg report saying: “I can’t comment on something that l am not familiar with, if they (Bloomberg) got that letter, maybe they got it from the Reserve Bank.”
Under regulations announced in January this year, exporters should transfer 40 percent of their foreign currency earnings to the monetary authority, up from 30 percent.
In the report, Bloomberg is quoting a CoMZ letter to Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube stating that those foreign-exchange losses may force miners to cut output as suppliers also demand payment in US dollars.
“But to single out that the miners want to pay taxes in local currency, I can’t comment on that one. The long and short of it is that we have been engaging Government since January to ensure that mining houses have sufficient forex,” said Mr Kwesu.
Repeated efforts to get a comment from the Finance Secretary Mr George Guvamatanga were unsuccessful as his mobile phone was not being answered.
Asked about the performance of large mining houses in the first quarter of the year, Mr Kwesu said statistics on the performance of the sector were still being compiled.
“We are now collating the statistics on the performance of the mining industry in the first quarter.
“We will only be able to know about the performance of the mining sector mid-May.
“But the industry, just like other sectors, has also been trying to navigate the Covid-19 challenges,” he said. —chronicle.cl.zw
