THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Financial Intelligence Unit has deployed teams to investigate pharmacies that are engaging in forward pricing, a practice that is believed to be fuelling exchange rate volatility.
FIU director-general Mr Oliver Chiperesa told The Sunday
Mail that market surveillance has seen players in the pharmaceuticals sector
being flagged for allegedly flouting exchange control regulations and indexing
their prices above permitted exchange rate ranges.
Close to 20 companies recently had their bank accounts
frozen for malpractices that include forward pricing and reluctance to transact
in the local currency.
Forward pricing involves quoting prices using projected
future exchange rates.
Mr Chiperesa described the pharmaceutical sector as “the
last bastion of exchange rate manipulation”.
The development comes at a time when the Zimbabwe dollar
has begun to gain against the United States dollar on both the official and
black markets in response to interventions rolled out by the Government in May.
“We are continuing with our surveillance,” said Mr
Chiperesa.
“As I speak, we have sent teams out of Harare, where we
have noticed that there are still incidents of non-compliance. We are focusing
on pharmacies, which have continued to present problems in the sense that a lot
of them are still engaging in forward pricing.
“We have been seeing a lot of pharmacies using exchange
rates of up to $10 000: US$1, which, as you know, are even higher than the
parallel market rate.
“The parallel market exchange rate is now somewhere close
or even at the same level as the official rate. But pharmacies, for some
reason, tend to come up with their own exchange rates.
“Many of them are using the $10 000:US$1 exchange rate, and
we have others going as high as $12 000:US$1.”
The FIU, he said, was going to deal with the non-compliant
pharmacies.
He, however, said there was now increased compliance with
exchange control regulations in the retail sector.
“The closing of the gap between the parallel market and
interbank exchange rates has reduced arbitrage opportunities that were being
taken advantage of by illicit foreign currency dealers and some corporates.
“Incidences of forward pricing are now on the decrease,” he
said. Sunday Mail
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