News / National
Shot in the arm for war vets
17 Aug 2019 at 08:02hrs | Views
Government has unveiled an additional $15 million budget towards war veterans to cater for their health, school fees and other welfare issues, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said Government would also consider their request to import vehicles duty free.
Prof Ncube said this on Wednesday in Senate during the Second Reading Stage of the Finance Bill.
The Finance and Appropriation Bill which sailed through Parliament, seeks to give legal effect to the various measures announced by Prof Ncube during the Mid Term Fiscal Policy Review statement.
Mashonaland Senator Alice Chimbudzi (Zanu-PF) had commended Prof Ncube for allocating $12,3 million to war veterans in his supplementary budget and hoped more would be done for them when the economy recovered.
"I thank the Honourable Senator for those compliments, I agree with her that this is an important constituency within our community, within our population and we are grateful for their sacrifice, we would not all be here if it were not for them. Last week, we had a robust debate in the Lower House and I agreed to top up with an additional $15 million to the War Veterans Administration Fund to cater for health, school fees and other welfare issues," said Prof Ncube.
"An issue was raised around other benefits such as making sure that the war veterans can import vehicles duty free. We undertook that we will look into this matter and see how we can progress it, it is on the table. One thing that I was asked to investigate is how many war veterans are able in terms of their RTGS or Zimbabwe dollar resources import cars in the first place and then we work out if it is within our budgetary envelope in terms of the duties we will fore-go. So, we are amenable to receiving almost case by case application representations on this issue but we will continue to look at other ways to support our war veterans and find solutions."
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said Government would also consider their request to import vehicles duty free.
Prof Ncube said this on Wednesday in Senate during the Second Reading Stage of the Finance Bill.
The Finance and Appropriation Bill which sailed through Parliament, seeks to give legal effect to the various measures announced by Prof Ncube during the Mid Term Fiscal Policy Review statement.
Mashonaland Senator Alice Chimbudzi (Zanu-PF) had commended Prof Ncube for allocating $12,3 million to war veterans in his supplementary budget and hoped more would be done for them when the economy recovered.
"I thank the Honourable Senator for those compliments, I agree with her that this is an important constituency within our community, within our population and we are grateful for their sacrifice, we would not all be here if it were not for them. Last week, we had a robust debate in the Lower House and I agreed to top up with an additional $15 million to the War Veterans Administration Fund to cater for health, school fees and other welfare issues," said Prof Ncube.
"An issue was raised around other benefits such as making sure that the war veterans can import vehicles duty free. We undertook that we will look into this matter and see how we can progress it, it is on the table. One thing that I was asked to investigate is how many war veterans are able in terms of their RTGS or Zimbabwe dollar resources import cars in the first place and then we work out if it is within our budgetary envelope in terms of the duties we will fore-go. So, we are amenable to receiving almost case by case application representations on this issue but we will continue to look at other ways to support our war veterans and find solutions."
Source - the herald
