'No more bond notes,' says Chinamasa

FINANCE minister Patrick Chinamasa last week said no additional bond notes would be released into the market to ease the cash crunch, saying the only solution lay in increasing exports.

Chinamasa made the remarks in Parliament after legislators pleaded with Treasury to release the entire $200 million support secured from Afreximbank to hedge the bond notes.

"I do not support that we should issue all the bond notes up to $200 million into the market," he said.

"We made it very clear that the bond notes are only issued relative to exports – no exports, no bond notes in the market, and we are going to stick by that because they are coming in as an incentive to exports," he said.

Mutasa Central MP Trevor Saruwaka (MDC-T) claimed people in the Diaspora were now discouraged from sending remittances because instead of giving out the 5% incentive, financial institutions were paying 3%, resulting in people being defrauded of $2 from every $100 deposited by Zimbabweans in the Diaspora.

Chinamasa said the issue raised by Saruwaka would be looked into and investigated.

Marondera Central MP Lawrence Katsiru (Zanu-PF) also claimed brand new notes were being traded at Roadport by money dealers saying Chinamasa must look into the issue, which had contributed to shortages of money at the country's banks.

"The issue is going to be investigated. What I know is that any bond notes issued are issued to commercial banks and not to individuals. What could be happening is that some people are issued with brand new bond notes when they withdraw at banks, and these will end up at Roadport in exchange for United States dollars," Chinamasa said.

The country has been experiencing serious cash shortages, with long bank queues having resurfaced.

Chinamasa urged everyone in business to use point-of-sale machines and Zimbabweans to increase usage of plastic money.