Members of Parliament have urged Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube to re-dollarise the economy saying that businesses, including government-owned, had informally re-dollarised already.
These remarks were said by former Finance Minister Tendai Biti who is also the Vice President of the opposition MDC led by Nelson Chamisa. He said:
As I said before, three-quarters of it is the government seeking to enforce payment of taxes in US dollars. If that is the case, why should we pretend that the US dollar is not alive and kicking in our economy? Why should we not simply repeal Statutory Instrument 142 of 2019 and allow the two currencies to operate together; the US dollar and the exchange rate?
His remarks come a few days after President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared at a ZANU PF 18th Annual People’s Conference that there was no turning back on currency reforms.
Biti also speaks when the government announced through the Government Gazette released on 6 December that it had put forward Finance Bill No. 3, 2019, an amendment to several monetary Acts which among other things penalises the re-dollarisation of the economy.
In June this year, Zimbabwe outlawed the use of all foreign currencies for domestic transactions bringing an end to multicurrency regime that was adopted a decade ago.