Finance Deputy Minister Keith Mukata says reports that the PF government’s national budget has collapsed are unwarranted.
Mr. Mukata said talking about a budget over run at this stage is premature.
He said the government is running an activity based budget and has continued financing projects and programmes are the fall due.
“This talk of a budget over run is rather premature. How can you burst the budget which you have not even implemented half way? This is whole just talk. We cannot start talking about overruns at this stage.”
He challenged all those claiming that government is running a huge budget deficit to come out in the open and reveal the figures.
“They are talking about an overrun but they are not telling us the figures. Let me come out and tell us by how much we have overrun the budget.”
Mr. Mukata said all the key government projects are being funded adequately on time, a strong indicator that the budget is on course.
Keith you were a good and honest boy… but since you joined this troop that has changed and you have become a lair! so if there is no buget over run..what is there????
Signs of a Budget over run are all over.The Electoral budget for by-elections which was pegged at K4b has been over chewed.So far,over K40b has been spent on by-elections and many more are still to come.Furthermore,the recurrent budget on emoluments to both cabinet and general government administration has been exhausted due to bloated un budgeted for numbers on Deputy Ministers,DCs and all those appointed to man the newly created districts.What about the expenditure on the recalled diplomats and new postings.Are all these within budget? Can Mr Mukanta give us the correct position please?
You are the one arguing so tell him what is there. He says there is nothing like an over-run.
@Ndobo, where did you know that Keith was a good boy? Umwaiche ulya alitumpa sana, ask Ba Sichinga. He fought Sichinga in Kafue as MP, he continued at Ministry of Commerce, until old-man Sichinga decided to go to Agriculture, a ministry he can’t understand.
But it is not Keith’s problem that Ministry of Finance is in a mess, unless Keith tells that Nawakwi and Magande are useless former ministers who don’t understand budgets. Its not always about figures in the budget. For example:
If budget had 20 ministers, and so far PF has 42 ministers, you have already over-run budget. If you are paying them salaries or not.
mrs nawakwi there lies challenge,give us the figures. mulaimona abamano saana just because you are married to a tonga
No substance. Foolish tribalist. We are discussing the 2013 budget here and you lace it with you tribal sentiments?
Overrun or no overruns our budget remains a measly one by regional standards.How do agri-economies like Tz afford a budget of $11b (over twice zed’s budget) or Kenya, a budget of $20b yet they don’t have the mineral wealth like us in zed? Something is wrong with us in zed.
Not Something, everything is wrong pa ZED.
@Enka, On a per capita basis Tanzania has a small budget compared to Zambia. Tanzania has a population of 43 million and a Budget of $11 bn. Zambia’s population is just a third of Tanzania’s at 14 million . Zambia’s budget is $6.4 billion. Tanzania needs to treble her budget to $19.2 bn to be on an equal footing with Zambia.
Kenya on the other hand has the same budget as Zambia on a per capita basis. Kenya has three times Zambia’s population. It has a population of 42 million. Kenya’s Budget is also 3 times the size of Zambia’s just like the population figures! So Kenya and Zambia are more or less the same!
Ba Enka, am sure you found Gonclave’s post educating
What are Botswana or Namibia’s budgets? They have populations of less than 2 million people.
what is the population of the two countries in comparison to Zambia? and are you aware that those have faming throughout the year because of their climate? your mapopwe is cheap baba.
@Goncalves: I got your per capita lesson loud and clear.Very educative though i still don’t get why kenya’s budget is much larger with lesser arable land and a somewhat lesser population than TZ. Thanx Goncalves
Keith let’s hope you are telling the truth otherwise that will be a disaster. You have so many projects all of them going on at the same time, don’t you think this can result in a budjet ove run? All the projects are good, but are they well budjeted for?
Maybe. But who can believe a bald man?
Initially, my gut feeling on the removal of subsidies by the PF government was actually due to this same issue coming up now – budget over run. So they had to remove subsidy to proactively cushion and remedy the budget over run. But even if there was budget over run, would they say? apparently not, because telling the truth is not anymore a virtual in politics…
But there is no smoke without fire, own up and tell the truth.
Where the evidence that there is no overrun.show us the books
Well, the rule of thumb is don’t believe the story until it is denied, more so if the denial has no facts but busy asking for evidence. That is how things work.
I think there is a strong case of budge overuns because of a lot of unplanned and unbudgeted for activities that surely need to be funded. Blooated cabinet, creations of new districts, unplanned for by elections and now bloated missions abroad. All these would take a knock on the budget and we don’t need to provide evidence.
Again , it would be silly to ask Govt to prove that they have not overrun the budget. They are BOMA and we are not in the EURO zone and we can print our own money like the US does. God forbid , if this happens, it will be really 20 years going back after good work done by MMD to restore trust in budget
Bo MMD Bootlicker, you are right but I am afraid you have given them an idea of printing more money since they have no other way of coming out of this Catch 22 situation.
Keith Mukata boy,just eat with PF while it’s still day.Night is soon coming,and you won’t eat any more.Then reality will dawn on you.and you will realise how foolish you have been all along, having made this foolish move to side with Pathetic Failures(PF) and Bufi Pamafi(PF) Govt.
why are they note funding grants to govt institutions? most departments have only received twice or three times funding this year.
No. 3, Tanzania and Kenya have higher national incomes because
1. Both countries have population 3 times that of Zambia, which means that they collect more money in taxes that Zambia does.
2. These two nations are not land locked like we are. Both have huge ports which generate huge incomes for these countries. For example, almost every car you see on a zambian road passed through Dar-es-salam, most of the Zambian Copper and the Copper from DRC passes through Dar. Almost all our imports pass through Dar. This gives Tanzania, huge earnings which Zambia cannot March. Same with Kenya.
EXCUSES!!!! That’s Zambia’s undoing. Invest in productive sectors not consumption, diversify your economy from a single commodity (copper), secure export markets for your goods and move away from an import based economy, lower taxes for Zambian SMEs, create jobs thus broadening the tax base…then all your excuses of population size and being landlocked will go!! How do you explain Singapore a city-state with a population of 8million and no natural resources having a GDP per capita higher than all the G8 countries including the USA and a bigger budget than many populated countries????
@Umuntubantu : i think you hit the nail on the head with very sobering questions and a great example of Singapore being a different reality from our lame excuses.Excellent catch.
Lusaka Times you should start doing opinion polls to give us an opportunity to rate government performance. It will be a good way of gauging the national mood.
No it won’t be a good mood for gauging the national mood. Only the mood of the Zambian online community which makes up a very small proportion of Zambian’s especially when one considers that a significant portion of the bloggers on Zambian sites like this one don’t even live in Zambia
Noted. Thanks for the alternative perspective.
How many reads Lusaka times for you to conduct that opinion poll on internet majority of blogers are some of us kind of and you can not get a proper mood in the country since most of you guys dont even stand in queues waiting to vote. the unimformed are the deciders on who leads this country. for as long as we have people who dont follow what is happening on the political scene do expect much change and dont be suprised that HH will remain in the oposition beacuse the road that we did not have here in chadiza its now being tared so obviously we have leasons to beleive PF.
Give us the values and budget lines for :
1. Cabinet costs for 70 plus ministers and their deputies
2. Numerous new districts and a province
3. New capex such as universities , bridges and roads
4. Almost 11 by elections.
Does this jerk even know what budget run over means or is he just a ventriloquist?
it’s called “budget over run” please not” budget run over”.
@Teacher….kikikikikiki kekekekeke it can be anything at the moment. Does it really matter whether run over or over run??? It in facts sounds correct that the pf has run over the budget and killed it.
It would be very helpful if the Deputy Minister, in trying to counter the claims of budget over-runs, could come with concret figures as to what each project was allocated and how much has been spent so far. It’s not enough for him to just say it’s too early. After all, is there not such a thing as a mid-course review of a project or mission?)
Claims of budget overrun are concoctions. If the budget has been exhausted, all national developmental activities would have ceased. Everything would have come to a stand still. Honourable Mukata is telling the truth. Those who are making these wild claims are outside the government operations. They are just relying on assumptions with a huge probability of judgment error.
@ 17: The fact that projects ar going on does not mean there is no budget overrun. Govt could be using promisory notes or borrowed money for projects to go on. A budget overrun occurs when you do unbudgeted for things. So many things dreamt of at state house do not have a budget. Where does the money come from?
One example of overun is the ECZ 40+billion Kwacha instead of the budgetted K4billion. Now what about the new salaries, more ministers etc where is the money coming from…outside the budget.
I am a contractor and I and other contractors have not been funded in the last five months. This is a defi.ate sign of a budget over run.
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