Seventeen pharmacies had their trading licences suspended
or cancelled after government accused them of destabilising the economy by
forward pricing and violating the country’s exchange control regulations.
However, Biti has described government’s decision as
illegal.
“For starters, as a question of law, no adverse decision
can be taken against any party without due process and respect for the right to
be heard; what lawyers call the audi alteram (pattern) principle codified in
section 68 of the Zimbabwean constitution,” Biti said..
"As an economic measure, we have always argued that
‘ginyanomics’ does not and cannot work. Retailers are subject to market
exigencies. In a cash economy, they will always possess huge amounts of cash.
That on its own is no basis for their criminalisation."
Some of the pharmacies, which have been suspended or had
their trading licences cancelled, include Greenwood Pharmacy in Kwekwe, Global
Pharmacy in Kadoma, Apex Pharmacist Pharmacy in Gweru, Greenview Pharmacy in
Rusape and Grey Pharmacy in Mutare, among others.
A number of service providers are using the black market
rate, forward pricing or exclusively demanding United States dollar payments to
hedge against losses emanating from a weakening local currency. President
Emmerson Mnangagwa re-introduced the Zimdollar in February 2019, and has on
several occasions threatened to punish businesses for rejecting the local
currency.
As of this week, the Zimdollar was trading at $4 998 against
the greenback down from $7 000 in previous weeks.
Biti said it was a myth that the local currency had gained
value against the greenback.
"Truth of the matter is that cleaning up all RTGS
dollars in the economy and thus starving the economy of liquidity is not
sustainable. It is an ephemeral measure that will be exposed once the printing
press begins to run to finance insatiable fiscal demands,” Biti said. “We have
been here before. This economy cannot be turned around by patchwork or
kick-and-hop economics.”
Mnangagwa has resisted calls to dollarise the economy.
Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment