HARARE: Zimbabwe has to date accrued $614 million through exports of gold, Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa has said. The minister, who is also acting Minister of Finance and Economic Development, said: “Revenues from gold are on $614 million as of last week, which is six percent up from the same period last year. But we believe that we could be much bigger than that if all the gold was being accounted for.”
Minister Chidhakwa said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s export incentive was particularly higher for small-scale gold producers, at five percent, in order to curb gold leakages. “In respect of the big guys we know that the chances of them playing games is next to nil, so we gave them 2,5 percent but the small producers we said let’s give them a little bit more so that we can mop all that up,” he said.
The RBZ’s Exchange Control Division has since said that resource based large mining exporters will be entitled to 2,5 percent export incentive scheme provided that they do not have overdue export proceeds. On the other hand, other mining exporters would be entitled to the full five percent export incentive scheme. According to Dr Nebson Mupunga, a principal director in the central bank’s External Sector Economic Research Division the incentive has seen an upturn in gold deliveries to Fidelity Printers. “In terms of the mining sector, this incentive will actually cushion miners from the effects of declining international commodity prices.
