Energy and Power Development minister Joram Gumbo has stuck
to his guns, declaring that he will not resign despite pressure from
stakeholders peeved by the worsening fuel situation.
This follows calls for his resignation for allegedly
misleading the nation into believing that the country had enough fuel when
long, winding queues have become the order of the day at pump stations.
Gumbo told the Daily News yesterday that he cannot throw in
the towel for telling the truth.
The Energy minister said the fact that there are queues at
service stations countrywide does not follow that there is a shortage of the
product.
He said the country has enough fuel at the Msasa and
Mabvuku gantry held in bondage, which petroleum companies are able to access
upon releasing payment for the product.
Gumbo said that stock had always been accessed by companies
through provision of foreign exchange (forex) from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ).
“People must understand one thing about the mandate of the
ministry. Its mandate is fuel provision in the country, and I am telling people
that there is enough fuel in the country and I stand by that even when they say
I lie and I must resign. I can’t resign for telling them the truth,” he vowed.
Gumbo said the country has five major companies that bring
in fuel at Msasa and Mabvuku depots since the industry was de-regulated.
Fuel retailers are then allocated foreign currency by the
RBZ to enable them to access the product.
In the past, the central bank would release US$10 million
per week, which was later increased to US$20 million weekly to match the demand
for the product.
“You cannot access it if you have not paid for it but it is
in the country so my stance goes and I still maintain that there are enough
stocks of fuel in the country,” said Gumbo.
The former Transport minister said due to the fact that the
international price of fuel has gone up, the money being released by the apex
bank is no longer sufficient for petroleum companies to buy the same quantities
of fuel needed to meet local demand.
Whereas fuel retailers used to buy 2,5 million litres of
diesel and 1,5 million litres of petrol with $20 million per week, this is no
longer the case.
What had also complicated matters is that Treasury had
introduced a new tax for electronic transfers that had increased the cost of
sales at a time when fuel retailers were not allowed to pass on the cost to the
consumer.
Gumbo expects the situation to return to normalcy in less
than a week now that Finance minister has said foreign payments are exempted
from the tax, and that the RBZ has paid US$41 million to the fuel companies.
“What the RBZ had to do was to look back to say in order to
maintain the same amount of fuel how much should I pay and I am glad to say he
(central bank governor John Mangudya) has already paid $41 million to the fuel
companies by Friday last week.
“The demand for fuel is because we opened the country for
business which means more consumption of fuel because the economy is rising
from its slumber…
“Because of the black market, foreign companies were now
filling up (their trucks) here because of the bond rate to the US dollar hence
the decision to say that foreign companies must buy in forex,” said Gumbo.
He said there was no reason for panic, saying petroleum
companies have been picking up fuel from Msasa and Mabvuku.
“The queues are clearing; just give us a day or two. I have
not said your service stations have fuel but that there is enough fuel in the
country which must be accessed in a certain way and I have not lied,” he added.
Fuel queues started building up last week with outlets in
Harare and Bulawayo having either run out or had long queues as motorists
patiently waited for their turn to fill up their tanks.
At some outlets owned by Total, attendants only served
motorists with pre-paid cards.
Other outlets refused mobile payments, preferring bank
cards and cash.
Mangudya has said the fuel shortages had been caused by the
introduction of a two percent tax on electronic payments last Monday, which
meant oil firms would incur weekly bank charges of $400 000 for fuel imports
but were not allowed to pass the cost to consumers.
The companies had stopped supplying fuel as a result,
Mangudya said, but he added the situation would improve soon because the
government on Friday night scrapped the tax on foreign payments.
It is not just Gumbo who has been under pressure to resign.
A section of society has also been baying for Mangudya’s
blood, saying the RBZ governor had made an undertaking to resign should the
bond notes introduced in 2016 fail to address the liquidity challenges facing
the country’s economy.
Mangudya has been adamant that the bond notes have not yet
failed because they have managed to increase exports by 35 percent in 2017 and
36 percent in the first six months of this year.
“Yes, I said if the bond note fails as an export incentive,
then I will resign when I was asked the question by a reporter from the Sunday
News of Bulawayo at the introduction of the export incentive scheme.
“Evidence on the ground shows that the export incentive
scheme paid out in bond notes has been very successful. Exports grew by 35
percent in 2017 and by 36 percent during the first six months of this year.
“Tobacco, for example, at 250 million kilogrammes produced
this year, is the highest ever produced in Zimbabwe, gold at 28 tons during the
first nine months of this year is the highest ever produced in Zimbabwe over
the same period.
“The same is true for the manufacturing sector, where a
number of firms have increased exports. The success of bond notes as an export
incentive is therefore evidence-based and that’s the reason I did not resign.”
Zimbabwe introduced the bond note towards the end of 2016
as part of its desperate bid to address the country’s severe cash and liquidity
crisis — all this under a special arrangement with Afrexim Bank.
However, the country has remained in the grip of a
ginormous economic crisis characterised by endless cash queues and the acute
foreign currency shortages.
Despite Zimbabwe having a decent tobacco season, as well as
having significantly improved its gold sales, the RBZ has not been able to
allocate adequate foreign currency to key sectors of the economy.
This led to the increase of prices for basic commodities.
However, Mangudya said the current inflation has nothing to
do with bond notes but is caused by fiscal imbalances. — Don’t miss the full
Question and Answer interview with Gumbo in the Daily News on Sunday. Daily
News
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