Government has unveiled an additional $15 million budget
towards war veterans to cater for their health, school fees and other welfare
issues, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli
Ncube said Government would also consider their request to import vehicles duty
free.
Prof Ncube said this on Wednesday in Senate during the
Second Reading Stage of the Finance Bill.
The Finance and Appropriation Bill which sailed through
Parliament, seeks to give legal effect to the various measures announced by
Prof Ncube during the Mid Term Fiscal Policy Review statement.
Mashonaland Senator Alice Chimbudzi (Zanu-PF) had commended
Prof Ncube for allocating $12,3 million to war veterans in his supplementary
budget and hoped more would be done for them when the economy recovered.
“I thank the Honourable Senator for those compliments, I
agree with her that this is an important constituency within our community,
within our population and we are grateful for their sacrifice, we would not all
be here if it were not for them. Last week, we had a robust debate in the Lower
House and I agreed to top up with an additional $15 million to the War Veterans
Administration Fund to cater for health, school fees and other welfare issues,”
said Prof Ncube.
“An issue was raised around other benefits such as making
sure that the war veterans can import vehicles duty free. We undertook that we
will look into this matter and see how we can progress it, it is on the table.
One thing that I was asked to investigate is how many war veterans are able in
terms of their RTGS or Zimbabwe dollar resources import cars in the first place
and then we work out if it is within our budgetary envelope in terms of the
duties we will fore-go. So, we are amenable to receiving almost case by case
application representations on this issue but we will continue to look at other
ways to support our war veterans and find solutions.”
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