BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) should consider scrapping interest on companies’ outstanding bills and halt court cases against businesses, to give them a chance to ride on the new economic order policy, an industry official has said
BY MHANDAZO NYONI
During his presentation at the 2018 National Budget Statement review dialogue held in Bulawayo recently, Association for Business in Zimbabwe chief executive officer, Victor Nyoni, said there was need for council to complement the government budget statement.
“Minister Patrick Chinamasa has scrapped the interest component on outstanding taxes by companies across the country for the period up to December 1, 2017,” he said.
Nyoni said some businesses in the city risk losing property due to debts owed to the local authority.
“A number of businesses have pending court cases after having been sued by council because of the outstanding rates,” he said.
“In line with the government spirit why can’t our council scrap the interest component and also halt the court cases against businesses in order to give them a chance to ride on the new economic order policy? After all interest on outstanding rates is not a normal revenue element,” Nyoni said.
Once the country’s industrial hub, Bulawayo has suffered chronic de-industrialisation effects over the past two decades with over 100 firms — mostly in the manufacturing, textile and clothing sectors — shutting down, leaving thousands of workers jobless.
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But signs of recovery have been noted in some of the industries, according to a report by Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries.
Nyoni in the same statement said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) should decentralise its services for the convenience of industry in the city.
He said since the RBZ in Harare meets with treasury officers from various banks every Tuesday to decide and prioritise foreign currency allocation to companies to meet their foreign payment needs, the same should also be applied in Bulawayo to turnaround the fortunes of local companies.
“This would also ensure that banks in the city are equipped with meaningful and useful treasury departments that will feed into quick investment decision making,” he said.
“Most banks in the city do not make meaningful treasury decisions. They always refer to their counterparts in Harare, thereby unnecessarily elongating the turnaround decision making process.”
