THE Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe expects to pay wheat farmers 80 percent in United States dollars following a bumper harvest, and suspension of the Intermediated Money Transfer Tax (IMTT) for payments to farmers up to the end of March next year.
Zimbabwe expects to harvest at least 380 000 tonnes of wheat this year, the best output since the 1960s when the country started wheat farming.
The yield will also surpass the 1998 output.
Addressing a post-Budget seminar in Harare this week, GMAZ chairperson Mr Tafadzwa Musarara said the private sector was therefore expected to participate in the mobilisation of funds for the off-taking of the wheat.
“We welcome the suspension of the IMTT tax by the Minister of Finance of 4 percent on foreign currency transactions and 2 percent on local currency. In fact, we anticipate that 80 percent of our payments to wheat farmers will be in US dollars to assist them settle their obligations with contractors which are 100 percent in US dollars,” he said.
The suspension of the IMTT was backdated to September 1 and ends on March 30.
Mr Musarara said the period would also assist them mobilise resources to pay the farmers.
He added that combined with interest on borrowing from banks, the IMTT was a burden to millers but commended the collaboration between Government and the private sector.“The 2022 wheat scheme is the biggest import substitution programme funded jointly by Government and the private sector since 1980. When we have been expected to spend US$300 million on wheat imports, we have internalised that bill so the multiplier effect of that is we are promoting manufacturers of inputs, labour and all other industries that have participated in that”.
Mr Musarara also welcomed the reinstatement of duty on basic commodities saying it would improve their viability and enable them buy whatever would have been grown by farmers.
GMAZ has 108 members who are into production and processing of basic commodities like flour, cooking oil, mealie meal, salt, rice and stock feed among others.
“It would be foolhardy to allow importation of flour or mealie meal. You are disabling the private sector to buy from local farmers what they would have grown and you are providing a market for South Africa or any other country.
“It means we would be exporting jobs and profitability of our companies,” Mr Musarara said. – The Herald
