Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube said that the government is currently operating on a positive cash basis.
Ncube attributed the positive development to a raft of austerity measured that he introduced when he became Minister.
Government is cash positive. We managed to pay civil servants salaries for the months of January and February from a cash positive position, with $300 million in the bank.
We are spending what we have, and I am determined to ensure that we carry on like that for the next two years. In fact, it should always be like that. On the expenditure front, we have been working hard to curtail expenditure in terms of civil servants’ salaries and civil service reform.
Some of the “painful” measures introduced by Ncube include the 2 per cent Intermediated Money Transfer Tax, an upward review (to 7 cents per litre) of excise duty on diesel and paraffin, and to 6,5 cents per litre excise duty on petrol and customs duty on motor vehicles and selected goods to be paid in foreign currency, among other measures.