Last week he said government was left with $217 after paying civil servants an estimated $2,6 billion last year.
In a recent interview Biti said Treasury was still distressed and government was failing to cope with huge demands. He bemoaned extravagance by government officials, particularly on travel.
“The state of the coffers is not healthy and it has never been healthy,” said Biti, adding that only about $1.4billion was raised from taxation.
Economist John Roberson said the current state of the economy was extremely depressing, and civil servants would be the most affected.
“We don’t know how government is going to raise the salaries for civil servants within this short time because the earliest paid usually get their money around the 15th. I foresee an adjustment of dates this month and maybe even in future,” he said.
“We are in this dire situation because government has not been collecting meaningful revenue over the past years. At the moment 70 percent of the government’s total revenue collections is going to civil servant salaries. Revenue from the diamonds would leave us in a better position. However there is a gap between what we are receiving from the diamonds and what is being mined,” added Robertson.
Biti repeated his concern that diamond mining firms were not remitting enough to sustain the fiscus.
“We have thieves who are pretending to be mining diamonds when in fact that only stealing our minerals,” said Biti.
Post published in: News