Yesterday the nation was presented with a breakdown of the national budget 2022 by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube. As you might expect the reactions to the budget are varied.
2022 National Budget
The minister of Finance yesterday announced a $$927,3 billion budget which various publications and officials have called “lifeless.” Contrarily, publications such as the Herald have labelled this budget as “people centred.”
In his budget presentation, Mthuli Ncube drew attention to the tax burden that was being faced by low income earners. Resultantly the tax bracket was adjusted. Ncube stated:
“In order to provide relief to taxpayers and also boost aggregate demand for goods and services, I propose to adjust the tax-free threshold from $10 000 to $25 000 and also adjust the tax bands to end at $500 000, above which a marginal tax rate of 40% will apply with effect from January 1, 2022.”
You can download the full budget here.
Criticism of The 2022 National Budget
The Progressive Teachers Union Zimbabwe (PTUZ) General Secretary Raymond Majongwe lamented over this national budget stating that it did not take into account the teachers and the challenges they face. He commented the following:
Former Finance Minister, Tendai Biti also had some sentiments of his own to shared with regards to the 2022 National Budget. Biti dismissed the budget as “ritualistic formality bereft of substance”. This is as a result of its failure to take into consideration exchange rate distortions and structural challenges around the free-falling local currency.
What do you think of the 2022 National Budget?