Friday, March 29, 2024

Fuel price increase is mockery – CSPR

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Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) has described as a mockery the increment of fuel prices of over 13 percent to civil servants who had their salaries recently hiked to only 15 percent .

CSPR Executive Director Patrick Mucheleka said the increment of fuel has reduced the 15 percent salary hike to a mere nominal increment which will not make any difference.

He said the the salary gains were already insignificant because of the reduced purchasing power of the kwacha and the high rate of inflation stressing that increment of fuel will further erode the gains of the workers from their salaries.
[pullquote]He added that it is the consumers and not the suppliers that would suffer and feel the effects of the increment as the service providers will pass on necessary costs to them.[/pullquote]
Mr Mucheleka said in an interview that it is the same workers that contribute to the treasury of the country more than even the mines do adding that the Government’s move would lead to stagnation of the state treasury.

He added that it is the consumers and not the suppliers that would suffer and feel the effects of the increment as the service providers will pass on necessary costs to them.

Mr Mucheleka charged that if government insists on having the super taxes on the mining sector it could alleviate some of the problems the economy is facing.

He urged government to find another alternative means to generate revenue as opposed to subjecting a few formal workers to subsidizing their costs.
[ QFM ]

14 COMMENTS

  1. The mechanism is simply never to allow CS to have any meaningful wages and hold their jobs as ransom whenever they insist for better wages. “Give with the right hand and take away with the left hand”.:(:(

  2. zambia is next to a neibouring country with oil/crude namely Angola,why dont the politics and planners at Ministry of Finance look into this issue seriously and find an invester/partner to establish a new smelter near tyhe boader with Angola or in Mongu town,so that we reduce our dependance on the fuel coming from the middle east,which has became unreliable

  3. well said… while Chaina infestors are reaping our money and with no tax on them. Giving away our GOD given resources to foreigners. Ala kwena muchalo mwaba ifipuba. Your people are suffering and yet you cant tax the mines? All govnts in the world are taxing their natural resources but you Zambians cant. Hoo what a batnch of dull selfish leaders we have.

  4. its high time we zambia say enough to sellfish people.. few people benefiting at the expense of the morjority.. when i look at zambia sometimes i few like crying.. even what we call development its nothing as compared to some neighbouring countries. fuel is cheaper in our neighbouring countries yet they are also landlocked.. the cost of living and doing business is very high.. how can we develop like this. its we zambians to change things everywere in the world they are saying enough to old politics and they are embracing change. when are we going to wakeup as zambians we have sunk so low.

  5. Rudd stated that the 40 per cent tax on mining profits would help the government pay for additional hospitals, retirement benefits and company tax reductions.
    “Australians had been shortchanged during a 10-year resources boom in which profits soared by US $81 billion but only US $10 billion flowed into national coffers,” stated Rudd. “BHP is 40 per cent foreign owned, Rio Tinto is more than 70 per cent foreign owned, that means that these massively increased profits built on Australian resources, are mostly in fact going overseas.”

    Zambia the real Africa

  6. This is a prudent move by GRZ. They have increased civil servants salaries by removing subsidies on fuel. Well done! With this attitude, the GRZ will not over shoot its budget.

    You take from one and give to another so that your books balance.

  7. Australia is recording declining foreign direct investment. Fortunately they dont have a high poverty to fight so they will work around this capital flight. As for Zambia, capital flight will only increase poverty. Zambia does not have other sources of income just yet so that they can write off copper production.

  8. # 10 Please do not be cheated about this capital flight crap. Thats a solution for people who are content with the development that Zambia has so far. All the mines save for Lumwana are 3/4 serviced by contractors. The owners just do the adminstration. You mean if the so called investors left (which they cant) GRZ cant do the managemet?? They save adminstration is fot the tuff tested you need people who can make bold decisions to drive the nation forward. Dont forget minerals are a diminishing resource. so WE NEED TO MAKE HAY WHILST THE SUN STILL SHINES

  9. the fact is no matter how much we complain we will still buy fuel at the higher rate. Lets not just complain but act too. Some of us our cowards and we laugh father Bwalya that he is insane. If we put pressure through action government will retaliate. Just act

  10. whenever there is any salary adjustment to CS the pump price for fuel goes up, when the threshold increased by 100 000 fuel went up now its the 15% increase. what is the secret behind this? kaya kaya.

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