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Message: [QUOTE="Munyaradzi Mafaro, post: 69157, member: 636"] Portfolio committee budget requests for 2026 have reached ZiG783 billion, exceeding Treasury's proposed ZiG231 billion allocation by more than threefold, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube reported during the Pre-Budget Seminar in Bulawayo. The minister explained that revenue collection systems can realistically support the lower figure based on a 16 percent revenue-to-GDP ratio, while meeting the inflated demands would surpass economic capacity. Ncube highlighted persistent problems with ministries and agencies signing contracts that exceed approved budgets. Currency instability has enabled contractors to inflate prices by two or three times actual costs, creating discrepancies between government revenues collected at official exchange rates and expenditures priced at parallel market rates. The minister expressed confidence that ZiG's currency stability should gradually eliminate this gap affecting recent fiscal years. [/QUOTE]