MPs meet ministries over 2017 budget

By Tatenda Dewa

Most parliamentary portfolio committees will this week meet line ministry representatives for consultations on the 2017 national budget, according to Veritas, a legislature watchdog.

The meetings are taking place from Monday through Thursday and precede the pre-budget seminar set for the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) grounds in Bulawayo from 2-6 November.

All lawmakers are expected to attend the seminar after having already attended the pre-budget briefing.

The Finance ministry has furnished the legislators with its pre-budget strategy paper (BSP) for 2017 that was completed in early October.

The BSP borrowed its priority policy areas from the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset), a government blueprint that was adopted several years but which critics say is moving sluggishly due to the economic crisis the country is facing.

In addition to ZimAsset, the strategy paper has drawn guidelines from the Interim Poverty Reduction and Strategy Paper (IPRSP 2016–2018), as well as other sectoral policies and programmes.

The IPRSP provides revenue projections and some key indicative expenditure ceilings. Nehanda Radio