Govt sets committee to probe high Zim prices

THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE Chiratidzo Mabuwa has said the government has appointed a committee to probe why prices in Zimbabwe are higher than in other neighbouring countries like Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi.

Speaking during senate Mabuwa said, "we have commissioned an inquiry into this issue as to why it is that products in Zimbabwe are more expensive than in the region or neighbouring countries? The report showed that there were about eight reasons why we have high prices. Some of the eight reasons are that when we look around in our region, we have the wages in other countries which are around us such as Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi, they have lower wages.

Zimbabwe has extremely high wages. The other reason was our electricity is very expensive."
He said the country's water is very low and it is not enough for the industry, and we realised that our priority inputs are either expensive or scarce because the tariff given in industry, especially in comparison with other countries in the region.

"We notice that electricity tariff in Zimbabwe is very high in comparison. We therefore, took this report and worked on it so that we could start to reduce these prices so that we have ease of doing business and improved competitiveness of Zimbabwean products on the market," he said.

"As a result, we will be coming back to Parliament so that we have a policy change in the income prices and wages so that we have a National Competitive Commission which should be founded so that it will look into the reasons which caused prices of Zimbabwe to be higher than neighbouring countries or other countries where we export our goods."