Auction rate is now a business in Zimbabwe, says Mliswa
Norton legislator Temba Mliswa has told Parliament that the auction-rate has become a business for some people in the country.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) introduced the auction system as a way of trying to avail foreign currency to needy sectors of the economy.
However, in as much as the auction was applauded, most people have castigated the suppressed exchange rate.
Currently, the official rate is way below the black-market rate.
This has seen people getting forex from the auction system and then selling it at the black market where it fetches higher premiums.
According to Mliswa, the government’s failure to monitor how the money from the auction is being used has created business opportunities for some people.
‘’The other issue is the only business in town is auction. There is facilitation fees, we have come up with policies that have made people become lazy, and criminals in the process.
‘’What are we doing to follow up on the auction money that people get, companies, the institutions which are supposed to be doing that?
‘’You will see that people are bringing in new cars, buying houses, the value of houses has gone up from 800 million to 1.5 billion, yet the economy is not pumping. Where is that money coming from? It is from the auction-rate where people are getting this money yet not utilising it for the intended purposes.
‘’The big companies like INNSCOR, you give them money on the auction-rate yet they are generating foreign currency from the food that they sell, what is the point? Who are you trying to please? So, the smaller ones are now dying yet the bigger ones are getting bigger and bigger.
‘’INNSCOR reported profits in an environment like this but you still go on their knees by giving them foreign currency, what for?
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has announced a raft of measures that are meant to deal with the monetary indiscipline in the economy. The measures have however caused a lot of shocks to members of the public who woke up to massive price increases among others. –
