Harare — The  Finance Bill and the Appropriation Bill, which seek to give effect to the Supplementary Budget announced by the Minister of Finance, Cde Samuel Mumbengegwi, last week, sailed through the House of Assembly and Senate yesterday.

Both Bills passed without amendments and now await assent from the President.

The Finance Bill seeks to give effect to the provisions for the revenues and public funds contained in the Supplementary Budget, such as the income tax, value added tax and presumptive tax, among others.

The Appropriation Bill seeks to give effect to the Supplementary Budget estimates for each Government ministry.

The Finance Bill passed through the House of Assembly last Thursday and was brought to the Upper House yesterday.

The Finance Bill seeks to amend the Finance Act, Income Tax Act, Stamp Duties Act, Value Added Tax Act and the Customs and Excise Act.

This is in order to give effect to various measures introduced by Cde Mumbengegwi in the Supplementary Budget.

Clause two of the Bill substitutes section three of the Finance Act so as to empower the minister to change by regulations any rate of tax, duty, levy or other charge that is charged or levied in terms of any chapter of the Act, in advance of the charging Act by which those rates, duties or levies are fixed.

Clause three of the Bill prescribes the rates of income tax payable by various classes of taxpayers.

The clause will alter the incomes "bands" according to which rates of income tax are calculated and at present this minimum is $1,5 million per month and the clause seeks to raise it to $4 million.

Clause four will increase the rate of automated financial transaction tax while clause five pertains to tax based on the presumed income of certain businesses like taxicabs, goods vehicles and driving schools.

Debating during the second reading stage of the Appropriation Bill, Senators bemoaned the amounts of funds allocated to ministries, saying they were inadequate.

Senator Sheila Mahere (Non-Constituency) said the $89 billion allocated to the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development was not enough.

"This shows that women are right at the bottom of people's thinking.

"The ministry wants to implement various projects like (under) the Domestic Violence Act where it will be providing safe houses for those women who would have been abused," said Sen Mahere.

Cde Mumbengegwi, who was steering the Bill, said there was no single vote in the Supplementary Budget allocation that did not include women.

"These votes are not for men alone but women as well. We need to consider these issues from a broader perspective," he said.