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SAZ awaits $3,5 million govt grant

Business
The Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) is expecting to receive $3,5 million from government to support its activities this year.

The Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) is expecting to receive $3,5 million from government to support its activities this year.

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

SAZ director-general Eve Gadzikwa said of that amount, $2 million would be channelled towards capital expenditure and $1,5 million for the recurrent budget.

“We do receive support on an annual basis equivalent to 68% of our recurrent budget and 100% for our capital expenditure. All the equipment that we have in our labs is supported 100% by the government ,” she said.

“We are very fortunate and grateful for that support because we are providing a national strategic service to industry and establishing and maintaining standards for Zimbabwe.”

According to Gadzikwa, the recurrent budget would be released in tranches based on a budget that was submitted to government while SAZ generates its own income from their commercial activities.

She said money was collected on behalf of SAZ by government through the standards development levy as a percentage from industry.

“As the national standards body, we are very fortunate in the sense that we are an organisation that’s registered in terms of the Companies Act, but as a not-for-profit organisation,” said Gadzikwa.

Capital expenditure is incurred when a business spends money either to buy fixed assets or to add to the value of an existing fixed asset with a useful life extending beyond the taxable year.

Gadzikwa said in almost every country standards become the business of any government to ensure that the community was safeguarded.

SAZ’s core activity is to facilitate and co-ordinate the development of national standards and to publish national standards.

SAZ has to date published 1 440 Zimbabwean standards and as a signatory to the World Trade Organisation code of good practice for the preparation, adoption and application of standards, SAZ abides by its principles of openness, balance of interests and participants, due process and consensus and adopts international or regional standards in order to facilitate international trade.

SAZ being the national standards body, prepares and publishes national standards that are prepared by technical committees which consist of representatives from manufacturers, trade associations, government departments, educational, research, professional and testing institutions.

In order to ensure that the standards produced are not technical barriers to trade, interested parties including SMEs are encouraged to participate in the voluntary national standards development work.