Government Allows ZESA To Bill Exporters In Foreign Currency

Zimbabwe’s power utility, ZESA, can now bill exporters in US dollars or other foreign currency, while billing local customers in local currency for the next six months, following the gazetting of Statutory Instrument 93 of 2023.

The Exchange Control (Payment for Electricity and Related Services in Foreign Currency by Exporters and Partial Exporters) (Amendment) Order, 2023 (No. 2) was approved by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube.

The SI requires every exporter to pay and be billed by ZESA in US dollars or the equivalent in Euros or any other currency denominated under the exchange control order on the date of payment.

Partial exporters or any other customers will be billed in Zimbabwe dollars unless they apply to enter into a foreign currency billing agreement with ZESA. The agreement must provide for the duration and renewal of the foreign currency billing agreement, failure of the customer to pay in the agreed foreign currency, and minimum notice period to switch from a foreign currency billing agreement to an ordinary contract of supply. Reads SI93:

Every exporter shall pay and be billed by Zesa in United States dollars or the equivalent in Euro or any other currency denominated under the exchange control order at the international cross rate prevailing on the date of payment for the supply of electricity by Zesa to exporters.

Any partial exporter or any other customer shall be billed in Zimbabwe dollars unless such partial exporter or customer at their instance apply to enter into a foreign currency billing agreement with ZESA.

In a Twitter post, Moyo questioned the timing of the Statutory Instrument, which comes on the back of pricing mayhem and forex upheavals. He also criticized the retrogressive provisions of the SI, which he says create or sustain arbitrage opportunities and undermine the credibility of the new market-determined interbank exchange rate system in its infancy. He said: