Various stakeholder have reacted positively to Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda’s 2015 National Budget proposing to spend K46.7 billion anchored on industrialisation, job and wealth creation for the coming year.
Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) Director Leonard Chiti has said that the 2015 national budget is encouraging as it is exhibiting economic independence.
Fr. Chiti told the media yesterday soon after the budget speech presentation by Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda at parliament that the budget is impressive as it has taken a different direction from the previous budgets presented by the government.
He said he was happy with the allocation in the education sector as this has the potential to provide financial independence in the masses.
Fr. Chiti said the growth of the education sector requires a lot of attention from government as many children travel long distances to their schools.
Fr. Chiti said many schools are not equipped with the right teaching materials which was detrimental to the education sector.
He however said he was disappointed with the allocation in the health sector because there are a lot of challenges that it is facing which JCTR had hoped the 2015 budget would address.
Fr. Chiti said the allocation to the constitution making process is demoralizing as the amount allocated is minimal to complete the process.
He said the K29.3 million was not enough and that this called for lobbying for funds from various stakeholders in the country.
Fr. Chiti said the low funding will result in the delay in the constitution making process which has already dragged-on for a long time.
And Former Finance Minister Ngandu Magande has described the 2015 national budget as a progressive budget centered on growth and social protection.
Mr Magande said the K46 billion budget unveiled by Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda has touched expected key areas of the economy such as enhancing agriculture and economic activity in order to grow the country’s economy.
Mr Magande however, called for concerted efforts to implement programmes that will grow the economy to double digits.
He pointed out that there is need to reduce expenditure and concentration on construction and rehabilitation of roads infrastructure and instead channel funds to poverty reduction programmes.
And Academician Mbita Chitala hailed government’s intentions of creating a sovereign fund to provide capital to establishments to improve productivity especially that quasi government institutions have been declaring dividends to the government.
And financial institutions have commended government’s resolve to limit domestic borrowing to 2 per cent of gross domestic product as a good initiative to spur economic development.
National Savings and Credit Bank Managing Director Cephas Chabu said the move will free- up funds that will be lent to the private sector at reduced interest rates for economic productivity.
Mr Chabu said the budget will trigger growth through investments in agriculture, education and other key sectors of the economy arising from money made available from reduced domestic borrowing.
Economist Oliver Saasa described the 2015 national budget unveiled by Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda today as being bold and touching on many areas of the economy.
Prof. Saasa told the media soon after the budget presentation speech at parliament that the support the crop marketing season is receiving in the 2015 budget was encouraging.
He said he was happy that the agriculture sector is receiving enough attention from government because it is a key sector of the economy.
Prof. Saasa said this should encourage the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to reach out to the remotest parts of the country to ensure that they purchase enough maize from the farmers.
He said the increase in budgetary allocation will ensure that effective extension services will equip farmers with knowledge and skills to remain productive.
Prof. Saasa said it was good that 500 more extension officers will be recruited as this will better equip farmers on the technical know-how.
Meanwhile , commenting on the budget , Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Leonard Hikaumba said the labour movement was not happy with the continued wage freeze.
Mr. Hikaumba described the situation as illegal saying government as an employer cannot continue with the wage freeze in 2015.
He said it was sad to note that government has given a deaf ear to their plight even after making submissions to the Ministry of Finance.
However, UPND central UPND MP and party spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa said Government should have increased the budgetary sponsorship to the bursary scheme.
Mr Mweetwa said that at the moment there was too much pressure on the bursary scheme therefore the need for Government to increase that allocation.
“The money released towards the bursary scheme is just a drop in the ocean so we need to properly finance the bursary scheme. Actually we expected a double increase to the bursary scheme as compared to last year,” he said.
On mining He said Government should have introduced windfall tax as opposed to just putting mineral royalty tax to 8.1percent.
These are views of father Chiti,the title is misleading. Nothing special
learn to read something longer than an sms if you read further you would have noticed that several people commented including the negative and myopic comment form upnd
For me that was the best budget speech and content I have ever seen. To be part of that historical execution of it was flawless. Ladies and gentlemen we must count ourselves happy to have witnessed such a monumental event.
Year after years we will be telling our grandchildren certainly I will, telling nick almost brought tears in his eyes.
I conquer the stakeholders here, that was just awesome in every bit of the word.
As we count ourselves lucky to be part of this magnificent government I urge you all to ignore all naysayers, and all enemies of peace in zambia, who shall nonsensically want to spoil or utter silly comments.
We need to stick together as we remain part of this function government that even we, are lucky to be part of
Thanks
The devil will be in the implementation plan as the PF has shown that they are simply reckless and can not deliver on their pledges.
Last year ‘s budget, was equally impressive but farmers have not been paid, students are stranded, many road projects have stalled due to lack of funds.
How does PF explain delays in armed forces salaries, cuts in teachers salaries and allowances, lack of money to fund health institutions?
Two days ago a Child health and social welfare minister suggested that hospitals and clinics should grow food to feed their patients. Is PF serious about real issues affecting people up and down the country? How bizzare is that?
PF ni ba chimbwi chabe. It talks the talk but delivers nothing. It promised the constitution in 90 days, but up to now has…
North Korea has also joined Zambia in having an absentee landlord. Kim has not been seen for five weeks now.
I m sure change is coming to Nk soon.No cruel regime can go on for ever.
I totally disagree with Magande’s views on the funding towards infrastructure, particularly roads. How else can you sustainably reduce poverty if you dont give people access to cheaper markets and allow them to make affordable business linkages? Strange indeed
I agree with you. Im surprised Magande got this one wrong… in developed countries they saying went…’fix the road, promote the trade’..then this comes the solution for reducing poverty. Communication rules the nation and this also extends to road networks….
Concur. That programme must be seen through and executed to perfection.
This is a working government. More kudos to the PF government for turning around the economy. Abash UPND and all the haters. This is change with continuity. Long live Sata and his comrades. I can see Sata and his PF ruling beyond 2021.
A very good budget indeed.How ever Sata should reshuffle or drop some Permanent Secretaries who are deadwood for effective implementation.
Yes a good budget but funds should be released timely for implementation of programs and projects.Some Permanent Secretaries should be appraised and ineffective ones should go whether they are friends or relatives.
This budget is wrong. Our national income is K30b. Why go to K46.7 billion. It is like your monthly income is K30, 000.00. Yet you and wife plan to spend K46 700.00. This is a recipe for disaster and accumulated debt over the years. For those not familiar with our zed national budget, one third of national budget is donor funded every year since Kaunda days. Our current debt is in $$$ billion if not trillion
Govment makes assumption our ‘cooperating partners’ will cooperate and give us the balance. We need to learn to live within our means as a country. And we can if corruption is eradicated, useless by-elections cancelled, reduce size of Govmt etc. Other internvetions include increase Tax base. Remove tax incentive now enjoyed by foreign companies etc
Concur. We need to reduce our borrowing. It’s ridiculous to plug our shortfalls with debt. We are practically paying the West for their last recession by debt service payments. The West again are bleeding us. Failure to impose wind tax on mines or some other Revenue raising measure is annoying.
@seasoned engineer,you got it wrong,mr magande is correct in his analysis,he said govt should Reduce,and concentration on constructions and rehabilitation of roads,he didn’t say abandon.how will the roads sustain themselves?most of the roads being constructed are not strategic roads,the pf govt should start to encourage innovation,set up pharmaceutical companies,invest in research and science.we have to reduce our dependence on India in generic drugs.
@ Planso, You need to be very analytical and understand the economic activity which most of our people are currently engaged in….for our country its agriculture. We can pull out alot of people from poverty if we could encourage them to produce more by providing markets for their produce. Right now, its unprofitable to set up a commercial farm in the Luwingu-Mushota-Kawambwa area due to the high transport costs that are incurred during the marketing of produce. With able transport infrastructure, farmers dont need to look for markets, instead, markets will come to them…What i mean is the private sector will be encouraged to set up value addition industries closer to the raw products due to reduced transportation costs. By the way manufacturing should be left to the private companies.
The 2015 budget which has put mining companies on same level footing with those small scale business who cannot claim input VAT. The effect of intransigency of arm twisting the government is an effective tax of 36% for open pit mines i.e 20% mineral royalty as final tax on sales and 16% Input VAT that cannot be claimed and likewise 24% for underground mining mines ie 8% mineral royalty as final tax and unclaimable 16%.
The only concern however is how the mines being the largest payer for services from abroad. Will they be compelled to produce returns just for Reverse Charge VAT and Non residents WHT?
Large Accounting firms will also feel the pinch in that there will be no need for the mines to produce any financial statements for ZRA.
However my personal opinion is that the budget…
A country can’t develop by consuming,75% of Zambia ‘ essential commodities are imported ,their is need to set up export manufacturing industries with the aim of reducing imports,the govt should encourage our farmers to diversify in crops like wheat,rice,plantain,banana,cotton not all the time maize.new advanced science centers should be set up,different drugs should be manufactured in zed and experimental ones can be used on monkeys,baboons.Zambia should find ways on auto taxes by introducing police auto computerized system and a computerized system on property tax to be collected annually.govt should be decentralized .individual development should be supported by proof of tax payment regardless of how small the business is.we need an overhaul of the entire revenue system to reduce tax…
Why has chikwanda left out rehabilitation of Solwezi Chingola Road? This is more important than some of the stup!d roads included in this useless budget. Can u compare this road to matumbo chama road or kasama mporokoso? The chingola solwezi rosd makes money for country. And he delibarately leaves this vital road OUT with impunity. Useless.
Watching the budget presentation and Freedom Sikanzwe in the background costantly excavating stuff from his nose and sucking his fingers next was very disgusting. The man was not even listening to the presentation but busy with his nose business. Not inspiring.
Talk is cheap. PF track record speaks for itself. What credible promise has PF Govt kept?. DWYSYWD (Do What You Say You Will Do) plus a little more.
wait for membe’s reaction.
Fellow bloggers-What really did the 2013 budget accomplished!Visit all the constituences & you will cry over the implementation of these so called ratified national budgets.Our MPs are really letting us down!They have their PAC in place chaired by Chipangali Law Maker-Vincent,but their oversight provissions leave much to be desired as almost nothing has been translated from the previous budget!If you go through 2013 budget-you will realise that most of the monies were misapplied or misapropriated by controlling officers without punitive measures to deter would offenders. By the please its not only in the health sector where funding is dwidling -its also seriously happening in education & defence wing where Iam working.We seriously once again humbly request our respective MPs to…
Economist Saasa? Please ba ZWD, with due respect to his interest in national economic issues, I challenge him to show me where he got his degree in Economics when the man specialized in Development Studies and the two are not the same fields. This is how Masumba went…academic masquerading.
@Makeshift, Development Studies is a multi discipline study. You can choose one area of specialisation within this multi discipline. You can do political economy, refugee studies, finance, humanitarian, economics etc. There is nothing wrong what Saasa has said about his study.