Zimbabwe does not have capacity to fund extra budget: Biti

"Zimbabwe's economy does not have the capacity to fund any extra budget since it was already struggling to raise money to finance this year's budget" says Biti

Responding to a question from Mbare MP Paul Mazikana of Zanu PF, Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe's Finance Minister, says there will be no supplementary budget this year when he presents his mid-term fiscal policy statement this month.

Mr. Mazikana had asked him whether he would present a supplementary budget to cater for the civil servants' salary increment.

He said Treasury had only recorded a significant inflow of money in March and June, while the rest of the other months, revenue inflows were subdued.

He said this painted a gloomy picture in terms of financing the 2011 national budget of US$2,7 billion.

He said the country managed to break the US$230 million monthly revenue collection target for these two months because they are the quarterly payment dates on corporate tax.

There will be a US$500 million budget deficit arising from the January salary increment, purchase of grain to complement strategic reserves, constitution-making process and travelling costs.

Biti says his government has spent over US$30 million on travelling.

Minister Biti urged people to brace for a "collapse of fiscal space and gnashing of teeth as people should tighten their belts."

Any additional expenditure outside the budgeted programmes would mean other allocations or areas would suffer, Minister Biti said.

He said Government ought to get rid of 75 000 "ghost workers" and improve transparency and accountability on diamond sale proceeds.