GOVERNMENT has instructed the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) to trace the US$30 million realised from diamonds sold this year outside international processes, Finance minister Tendai Biti said on Friday.
The directive follows a decision by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) on Thursday to allow Zimbabwe to sale a stockpile of diamonds from Marange under stringent conditions.
Under the compromise deal, the country would be allowed to sell a limited stock of diamonds between now and September 1.
The KP would then send a review mission before any further exports.
In his report which cleared the way for the lifting of the ban on the Marange diamonds, KP monitor Abbey Chikane said the country had exported US$30 million worth of diamonds but the money could not been accounted for by treasury.
“I am going to ask Zimra to trace the money,” Biti said adding that any revenue from Marange has to be accounted for in terms of the law, with the Consolidated Revenue Fund receiving its dues in full under parliamentary oversight.
“This will avoid the current opaqueness and suspicions over the quality and actual value of resources being generated from the current diamond mining operations in Marange,” he said.
Biti said the impact of the diamonds on the treasury would be determined after the sale.
According to estimates by officials from the Ministry of Mines, 4,4 million carats have been produced from the beginning of the year to May this year by Mbada and Canadile.
The two companies are joint-venture projects between private investors and the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.
The value of the diamonds stockpile is more than half this year’s US$2,25 billion national budget.
“It depends on the value of diamonds which nobody knows because no sale has taken place. People have been flaunting wild figures and we are saying let the sale take place,” Biti said.
However, the minister emphasised that Zimbabwe stick to the KP requirements and also ensure “money should not come before human rights”.
There are concerns that the decision to give Mbada and Canadile the mining concessions was not done above board and the two companies could be used by powerful individuals to plunder the country’s wealth.
Under the compromise deal, the country would be allowed to sell a limited stock of diamonds between now and September 1.
The KP would then send a review mission before any further exports.
In his report which cleared the way for the lifting of the ban on the Marange diamonds, KP monitor Abbey Chikane said the country had exported US$30 million worth of diamonds but the money could not been accounted for by treasury.
“I am going to ask Zimra to trace the money,” Biti said adding that any revenue from Marange has to be accounted for in terms of the law, with the Consolidated Revenue Fund receiving its dues in full under parliamentary oversight.
“This will avoid the current opaqueness and suspicions over the quality and actual value of resources being generated from the current diamond mining operations in Marange,” he said.
Biti said the impact of the diamonds on the treasury would be determined after the sale.
According to estimates by officials from the Ministry of Mines, 4,4 million carats have been produced from the beginning of the year to May this year by Mbada and Canadile.
The two companies are joint-venture projects between private investors and the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.
The value of the diamonds stockpile is more than half this year’s US$2,25 billion national budget.
“It depends on the value of diamonds which nobody knows because no sale has taken place. People have been flaunting wild figures and we are saying let the sale take place,” Biti said.
However, the minister emphasised that Zimbabwe stick to the KP requirements and also ensure “money should not come before human rights”.
There are concerns that the decision to give Mbada and Canadile the mining concessions was not done above board and the two companies could be used by powerful individuals to plunder the country’s wealth.
* Zimbabwe Standard
