Former Commerce Minister and MMD Lunte MP Felix Mutati has said that the 2016 Budget presented yesterday by Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda lacked the punch to give youths hope that there were business opportunities next year.
However, Politician Mbita Chitala said the Budget was pro-poor as Mr Chikwanda reduced tax on property transfer from 10 percent to five percent.
Dr Chitala said the Budget outlay was well done especially in the area of taxation as the move to enhance productivity in the manufacturing sector.
Dr Chitala’s words were echoed by Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) executive director Kryticous Nshindano who said the Budget speech clearly spelled out the measures that will improve the country’s social and economic welfare.
Patriotic Front (PF) Deputy Secretary General Mumbi Phiri said she was happy the Budget addressed the Eurobond sinking fund.
Ms Phiri said it was true that the Eurobond had been channelled towards infrastructure development but it was equally important that the Budget had an allocation for the sinking fund to pay back the funds.
Chembe MMD Member of Parliament (MP) Mwansa Mbulakulima however said the Budget did not discuss how the mining sector would be revitalised considering that it was the only main income of the country in the meantime.
Mr Mbulakulima said he foresaw the country remaining static economically if it did not go worse.
Overall, the Budget has been received with a sigh of hope as it has addressed most of the issues that were thorny to many people. The budget is said to have given hope to all sections of society, including the youth, which demonstrates the seriousness of the Government in making Zambia a smart country both in appearance and in economic terms.
Some analysts, cautioned those who are bent on finding faults with anything coming from the Government, that under the prevailing circumstances, this can be considered the budget of hope, which is likely to bring economic growth and increased employment for the youth.
The Government is advised to walk the talk.
Ni Lungu chabe… You have my family’s votes. Enjoy your presidency, don’t let anyone unseat you. No
Chitala which poor owns property that they should benefit from the reduction. Ati pro-poor.
Zambians be advised that you will have to start cultivating your own vegetables otherwise you won’t survive. I don’t even know how you will manage to water your veg gardens as water tariffs are going up. ABC has already stated that you should brace yourselves for more challenges. Prices of commodities will increase because of poor rainfall to be caused by El Nino. Elo lwanya.
Ba Mutati,I remember when you were Commerce minister,you were excited about the economic zones the MMD decided to create for the Chinese investors to start manufacturing plants instead of empowering Zambians to be at the helm of value addition industries. Don’t just condemn everything the govnt does because you’re in opposition……….when you were in power you pursued a lot of wrong policies.
Chitala, is out of Touch, The Government should work to reduce Taxes for people to benefit?? including your PAYE for the Lowery paid?? whats wrong with these people that think source of Revenue is taxes?? Have innovative Ideas that should make Zambia a Tax free country with the power to tract more business / economic development??
Makes me sick when you see stupid comments by some Zambian leadership?
“Overall, the Budget has been received with a sigh of hope as it has addressed most of the issues that were thorny to many people”…really? Do you actually believe your own words?
MUTATI YOU HAD YO TIME GIVE ROOM. U KNOW THE PROCESS OF BUDGETING ITS NOT ONEMAN SHOW.GOVT ASKED FOR INPUTS AND U DID NOT SUBMIT.BUT I KNOW DRUGS ARE DOING U BAD U CAN’T RECALL THINGS WELL.
Nothing will be ok for PF as long as you are in opposition . Better PF than any of you .I am not inspired of our opposition party.
Most of these bloggers did not critically analyse this budget,but its just praises allover as always!Mutati pin pointed one or so aspects which were once viable under MMD but collapsed under PF.Please go through the budget though we know its all greek to most of you!Meanwhile,its surprising to see new ministries being created without structures under them to submit their budget inputs before the budget was presented & let on approved-one wonders as to how these new ministries will thrive!This is a disaster in waiting & defeats the whole purpose of good governance practises,hence promotes corruptions & mismanagement in such new ministries!
My friend, all the created ministries were already existing as departments with own staff from Dep. Minister / PS going down. The only addition is a Minister on top. That is why Agric, Education etc had 2 PSs each. So do not expose your ignorance here.
The youths lose again
UPND chaps online will always find something to condemn. I am still assimilating the budget, but all I can say is Lungu is a Martin Luther King of Zambia!! Those who listened to him on Hot FM today can attest this. He is indeed building and changing Zambia. We need to give him support. Diasporans should also get along with reality and not to be swayed away by the malice perpetuated by ZWD and alike. We are one Zambia, One Nation
There is just a year to go before the presidential elections in Zambia. What we are seeing in the budget is an attempt to respond to criticism by the opposition. Yet it is hard to see a clear long term strategy to address the vulnerabilities of our economy. Our country does not seem to address the national empowerment question, the role of professionals and manufacturing by local owned companies so that there is a reduction of capital flight when things go wrong. It is interesting to see Mr Mutati condemning, when he used his position as minister to steal ideas from Zambians in order to give Chinese projects to invest in. We need politicians with long term interests in Zambia, not carpetbaggers like him. Zambia should include the diaspora.
Chikwanda has also warned that 2016 will be another difficult year. so which hope are some of you seeing.
The joking republic. Where both the ruling and opposition parties are never serious. Are budgets even followed? I don’t understand the hullabaloo of budget, budget, what budget,budgets in this part of the world mean nothing
Gud budget mr ABC Let the UPND die with jealous
Mbita chitala prasing every thing about pf in the hope of getting a job just follow his postings and comments.
If Felix is looking for valleys he will surely find them where the mountains are. Equally if you are looking for flops, you wanna find them because the speech was not tailor made to please you. When two people looked outside through the window after a heavy rains, one saw the mud and the other saw the moon. So it depends on what you want to concentrate on in the speech. If you Mutati were that perfect, you couln’t be human but a god.
Question 1:
Almost 57% of government expenditure goes towards emoluments (salaries). If civil servants are expecting a pay rise in 2016, has this been factored into the budget ? A 30% salary increment will add K15bn to the budget.
Question 2: ABC alludes to climate change attributed to El Nino. Since we are exporting our current maize stocks to Zimbabwe, what measures wil be put in place for the possibility of maize imports next year.
Question 3.
PAYE has been increased. Let me explain. if the PAYE threshold is not increased in line with inflation, a worker who gets a inflation based salary increment of say 7% is NOT earning more in REAL terms but he might be pushed into the PAYE threshold. In finance this is called FISCAL DRAG. Will UNZA graduates enlighten us on this ?
Question 4
Would you agree that Govt brought in the first 2 eurobonds at say K5.50 per dollar. Right now if they wanted to pay this eurobonds back, they need to raise K13 for each borrowed dollar. Therefore the debt burden on our kwacha tax base has doubled already. That is why mwana theres no point putting 50m dollars aside annually to pay off 3billion dollars in 6 odd years. At this rate you will gather less than 10% of the capital borrowed by the time maturity comes you.
You catching my drift ?
“Politician Mbita Chitala said the Budget was pro-poor as Mr Chikwanda reduced tax on property transfer from 10 percent to five percent.”
This is truly laughable…if this is what you call pro poor then Zambia is richer than UK or Holland…these people are truly out of touch; pro poor is about reducing service tax which directly affects the middle class and the poor and increasing corporate tax.
Ok, we are yet to see the figure but I would have expected the Minister to excite the workers by mentioned an amount towards increased package. There was no mention. Is the salary increment talked about by Secretary to Treasury a donchi kubebe. The unions are too quiet for the worker’s liking. Truly, PF is luck despite mediocre performance unions leaders as just sleeping. The labor movement is dead. PAYE he was also quiet, ABC, has the tax free threshold increased? Is there any change in the tax brackets or any reduction in the tax rate. Increase of duty on vehicles, really, do you want us to go back to walking? I leave it here.
Mbita chiksla…..looking for a job from PF