The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mangaliso Ndlovu said that the government is considering adopting stern measures against some manufacturers who get foreign currency from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) but wantonly increase their prices. The RBZ provides foreign currency to some manufacturers of basic commodities on the 1:1 rate with local currencies, the RTGS and the bond note. Minister Ndlovu had this to say
When it comes to most of the basic commodities that’s where we have a big say because for those ones we are supporting the manufacturers in terms of foreign currency, who then unscrupulously go on to increase prices or give the impression that they are not supported.
… We are discouraging businesses from wanton price increases and we are aware of the unscrupulous activities they are employing with a lot of them trying to beat the system. We are working around issues so that we come up with a proper system of curbing that. We know that there are businesses that are increasing prices even when they are getting allocations.
We are working on something and Government will not tolerate that kind of exploitation of the people.