Business Reporter
FINANCE Minister Thursday delivered a ZWG312,6 billion the 2026 National Budget, signifying the traits of a very tough day in office as he attempted to reasonably spread across meager resources which failed to match the demands at hand.
Premised under the theme, “Enhancing drivers of economic growth and transformation towards Vision 2030” , Ncube said the budget blueprint has a heavy leaning on National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2) (2026- 30) with a focus on economic growth.
Despite the fact that Government Ministries and Departments submitted requests totaling ZWG 825 billion, the under resourced treasury allocated just ZWG312 billion.
Efforts were made to target welfare related Ministries after the Health sector was allocated ZWG30,4 billion , Education ZWG 47,3 billion but risks that a huge chunk of the allocations are set to spent on meeting employment costs with very little being left to support Capital Expenditures remain high.
Sadly, the Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare Ministry which oversees the burdens of poor citizens needs received just ZWG12,6 billion alongside another key department, Youth Empowerment Development and Vocational Training receiving ZWG 1,6 billion.
The day was also very dark for the Women’s Affairs Ministry which pocketed just ZWG1,1 billion. The National Housing and Social Amenities Ministry got just ZWG948,9 million which may not enough to meet the populace housing needs
Security related Ministries will indeed have reason to smile all the way to the bank considering that they were allocated resources which almost surpassed half of what Welfare related Ministries received after the Office of the President and Cabinet received ZWG11 billion, Defence Ministry ZWG19 billion and Home Affairs Ministry ZWG17,2 billion.
The Treasury boss introduced a Digital Services Withholding Tax, in lieu of VAT on imported services, for
Payments made to offshore digital platforms, including e-hailing fees, online content charges and satellite-based internet access fees.
