PHILLIMON MHLANGA
Zimbabwe government breached its expenditure target by 48% or ZWL$1.367bn to ZWL$4.241bn in the month of December 2019 against a target of ZWL$2.874bn, a consolidated statement of financial performance shows.
This was largely due to government’s higher spending obligations on costs outlays.
Government blew ZWL$672.5m on employment in the month of December against a target of ZWL$575.9m, giving a variance of ZWL$96.6m or 17%.
There was also some generous spending on goods and services to ZWL$1.2bn against a target of ZWL$487m. This gives a variance of ZWL$722m.
“The variance is manly a result of higher than projected payments mainly for medical supplies, foreign travels, rentals and other service charges , maintenance and institutional provisions,” the statement said.
Government also spent ZWL$1.8bn on capital expenditure against a target of ZWL$1.4bn, giving a variance of ZWL$457m.
“The variance is mainly as a result of devolution funds transferred to local authorities, capital transfers to GMB for strategic grain reserves and purchase of farming inputs for the 2019/2020 cropping season,” the statement said.
Total revenue collection for the month amounted to ZWL$5.2bn against a target of ZWL$3.4bn resulting in a positive variance of ZWL$1.8bn or 52%.
“The positive performance is mainly recorded on taxes on goods and services which contributed ZWL$2.2bn against a budget of ZWL$1.2bn, intermediate money transfer tax contributed ZWL$503m against a budget of ZWL$389m.
Non-tax revenue, however, recorded a negative variance of ZWL$102m or 72%. Much of the variance was on government fees, fines and licences where collections were below target.
Consequently, the budget incurred a surplus of ZWL$984.2m.
