Coupons will be issued within a week to targeted households
to buy subsidised roller meal, with the database of beneficiaries at an
advanced stage, a Cabinet minister has said.
The coupon system for roller meal is expected to ensure
that the vulnerable people whom subsidies were supposed to benefit will access
the subsidised maize-meal without problems.
The existing system of subsidies paid to millers on all
roller meal produced has seen the bulk of the product diverted to the black
market by people willing to stand in queues all day or by unscrupulous smaller
retailers.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli
Ncube, who recommended the switch to coupons in Cabinet yesterday, adjusted the
price of subsidised roller meal on Tuesday to $70 from $50 to discourage
retailers and connected sections of society from diverting the roller meal to
the black market where it fetches between $120 and $200 for a 10kg bag.
The Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) had
submitted that $50 was no longer sustainable for a 10kg bag of maize-meal
because of the high cost of importing maize and the attendant transport costs.
Addressing journalists after yesterday’s Cabinet meeting,
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa
said the decision to introduce the coupon system followed recommendations by
Prof Ncube in his briefing to Cabinet in the last meeting on the action taken
to normalise roller meal supplies.
Minister Mutsvangwa said Cabinet had noted that the
previous $50 price for a 10kg bag of roller meal provided arbitrage
opportunities for some unscrupulous people.
“Government has thus moved in to redress the situation
using a two-pronged approach,” she said.
“Firstly, it was decided that the price be raised to $70
per 10kg bag of maize-meal from $50. Secondly, a targeted coupon scheme for the
vulnerable is in the offing with the compilation of a
database at an advanced stage.”
Minister Mutsvangwa said the coupon system was not new and
was practised in other jurisdictions across the world.
She said when the roller meal subsidy was introduced in
December last year after President Mnangagwa expressed concern over the then
prevailing high prices.
It was meant to protect vulnerable groups.
“However, the wide gap between the market and subsidised
prices has created undesirable arbitrage opportunities for some unscrupulous
players, resulting in the market and supply distortions,” she said.
“In view of this situation, the Government had no choice
but to review the prices upwards to bring the subsidised price to the market
price of $70.”
She said the Government remained mindful of the concerns of
the citizens hence keeping the increase at $20.
Minister Mutsvangwa said the ministries of Finance and Economic Development and Public Service,
Labour and Social Welfare were setting up a database of vulnerable groups of
people qualifying for the coupon system.
Deliveries of roller meal would be taken to the districts
for people to buy the product at the subsidised price.
“In terms of knowing who are vulnerable, we have the data;
it is a question of going through all the districts and get the names of all
the vulnerable. This is what Government is doing at the moment,” she said. Herald
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