Govt sets criteria for roller meal subsidy
Source: Govt sets criteria for roller meal subsidy | The Herald January 3, 2020
Herald Reporter
Government has laid out requirements for millers to benefit from the subsidised roller meal programme to ensure transparency, fairness and equitable access.
This follows a meeting between the Government and millers last week to iron out challenges that were affecting the availability of subsidised roller meal on the market.
There has been a shortage of subsidised maize meal in retail outlets as only eight of 61 millers had been receiving the special maize allocations for milling into roller meal.
Millers met representatives from the ministries of Industry and Commerce, Finance and Economic Development, the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra).
In a statement yesterday, Industry and Commerce Minister Sekai Nzenza said millers willing to receive the subsidised maize should have adequate paperwork.
“The Minister of Industry and Commerce advises all stakeholders that following the recently announced roller meal subsidy programme, the following criteria will apply to ensure transparency, fairness and equitable access of this subsidy.
“Application of expression of interest to be lodged with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce formally to participate in the subsidy, registration with the Agricultural Marketing Authority, GMB, Zimra, Standard Development Fund and Government vendor number issued by Treasury namely the Public Finance Management Vendor Number,” she said.
Millers should also present their grain milling licence, confirmation letter issued by the GMB, company certificate of incorporation and CR14, tax clearance certificate issued by Zimra.
“If the grain miller has stocks from the previous allocations, the balance will be carried forward and deducted from the next allocation. A contract to be signed after allocation of raw maize with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce,” she said.
Minister Nzenza said the subsidy would be paid after production and verification by a team of officials.
“In this regard, millers and all stakeholders registered by the GMB are expected to submit their allocation request by the 20th of every month on the basis of complying with the criteria above.
“The subsidy will only be paid out timeously after verification that roller meal was produced and supplied. However, for the month of January, the GMB will receive all applications subject to compliance with criteria,” she said.
Government recently introduced a roller meal subsidy to cushion citizens from the increasing cost of maize-meal.
This led to the prices of roller meal which was selling for $100 or more for a 10kg bag, dropping by 50 percent.
The switch from a general grain subsidy to a particular product subsidy sought to ensure that market prices prevailed throughout the system, except on wholesale and retail prices of the actual subsidised product, thus removing market distortions that led to widespread cheating and inefficiencies.
