Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The Minister of Finance and Economic Development recently presented the 2024 National Budget in Zimbabwe. After the presentation, the debate on the budget was adjourned for ten days to allow Members of Parliament (MPs) to review and analyze the budget. During this time, the Parliament and Senate were not in session.
Traditionally, a series of post-budget events are held to assist MPs in understanding and discussing the budget. However, these events were initially cancelled and later rescheduled for the week beginning on Monday, December 11th. The new schedule for these events, called Post-Budget Portfolio Committee Meetings, has been circulated by Parliament.
Each portfolio committee, including the Public Accounts Committee, will have two meetings. The first meeting, called Meeting No. 1, is open to the public as observers only. During this meeting, representatives from the ministries supervised by each committee will be consulted on their analysis of the 2024 Budget. These meetings were scheduled for Monday, December 11th in the Committee Room of the New Parliament Building in Mount Hampden.
The second meeting, Meeting No. 2, will be closed to the public. Its purpose is to consider and adopt the committee’s reports on the budget allocations for the ministries involved. The reports will be drafted by the committee clerk under the supervision of the committee chairperson. Once adopted, these reports will be presented during the debate on the 2024 Estimates of Expenditure.
The Meeting No. 2 sessions are scheduled for Wednesday, December 13th, at 2 pm, or Thursday, December 14th, at 10 am, Veritas reported. It is expected that the reports will cover not only the ministries but also other budget entities, such as independent constitutional commissions and the National Prosecuting Authority, related to each committee’s supervision.
These post-budget meetings provide MPs with an opportunity to engage with government representatives, analyze the budget, and contribute to the budgetary process. In these meetings, they can talk to government representatives, study the budget, and give their input. However, some people from the public have expressed their disagreement with the budget. They believe that raising taxes and introducing new ones is not a good idea because the people are already burdened with high taxes.
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