Staff Writer
FINANCE Minister, Mthuli Ncube says he realized a budget surplus of almost $1 billion in the month of December 2019.
The details are contained in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Performance covering the month of December 2019.
“The budget incurred a surplus of $984.2 million against a targeted surplus of $540.9 million,” says the statement.
The records state that total revenue collection for the month of December 2019 amounted to $5 billion against a target of $3.4 billion resulting in a positive of $1.7 billion and surpassing the target by 52 %.
The positive performance recorded is attributed on goods and taxes which contributed $2.1 billion against a budget of $1.4 billion.
Taxes on income contributed $2.1 billion against a budget of $1.2 billion while Intermediated Money Transfer Tax commonly known as the 2 % tax contributed $503 million against a budget of $309 million.
During the period under review, non-tax revenue recorded a negative variance of $102 million and much of the variance is on government fees licences where collections were below target.
“Total expenditure for the month of December 2019 amounted to $4.2 billion against a target of $2.8 billion resulting in a variance of $1.3 billion,” said the statements.
Expenditure for the month of December amounted to $672 million against a target of $576 million giving a variance of $96.6 million.
Operational expenditure stood at $1.2 billion against a target of $487 million.
However the huge surplus comes at a time when government is struggling to meet most of the basic citizens needs in the wake of Covid19 prevention.
Treasury is struggling to put in place adequate testing and tracking facilities of the pandemic.
In a surprise development which has left Zimbabweans begging for answers, Ncube recently launched a Covid19 crowd funding initiative.
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