Thursday, March 28, 2024

President Lungu warns Millers against Exploitation

Share

President Lungu
President Lungu

PRESIDENT Lungu has warned millers to stop using the current economic challenges as an excuse to exploit the already stressed Zambians.

And Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) president Evelyn Nguleka says milling is not a complicated and sophisticated business to warrant higher mealie- meal prices when the country has enough maize stocks.

Meanwhile, President Lungu has directed councils and other regulators to stop imposing levies without consulting other stakeholders and to adhere to the Business Regulatory Act.

Officially opening the 110th ZNFU annual congress under the theme ‘growth through agri-finance and technology’ in Lusaka yesterday, President Lungu said Government has confidence in the private sector as the engine for economic development.

The President said all market players should abide by the rules, act ethically and desist from all forms of opportunistic behaviour aimed at exploiting consumers at the pretext of volatility in the foreign exchange market.

“We will allow market forces to regulate the market but let me assure the nation that Government will undertake measured interventions to protect the consumer from unjustified price hikes of essential commodities such as mealie-meal, meat, cooking oil, bread and others.

“There can be no justification, for instance, why maize and fertiliser, supplied on the market when the exchange rate was below the current rate, should go up suddenly! I am hopeful that market players will play by the rules so that they do not lead Government to contemplate interventions beyond normal regulatory oversights,” President Lungu said.

He also said councils have misconstrued his opening remarks at the Local Government Service Commission (LGSC) annual meeting at which he stated that abolition of grain levies was not backed by legislation.

“This has been interpreted to mean that grain levies should be reinstated in an arbitrary manner. My Government commits to fair, easy, stable and predictable tax systems in the agriculture sector hence councils should ensure consultations and adherence to the Act before introducing any new costs on business,” he said.

And Dr Nguleka urged Government to institute investigations into operations of millers.

“They want to hold Government to ransom when the country has enough maize stocks. Millers do collude to increase prices but where is the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission when these people are breaching competition rules with impunity,” she said.

16 COMMENTS

    • The headline reminds of KK’s almost weekly instructions to businesses in the last months of UNIP.
      On the sudden increases of prices of essentials; note that the habit is a copy and paste behaviour of oil marketing companies, who, under government instructions, increase price of fuel products effective mid-night regardless that the stocks in tanks were purchased at cheaper price.

    • “There can be no justification, for instance, why maize and fertiliser, supplied on the market when the exchange rate was below the current rate…..”

      HE President Lungu, are you not aware that since PF took over power in 2011 the kwacha has lost value by over 100%. This simply implies that everything which is imported into the country and that which is associated with processing or input based on imports, the prices have had to be adjusted upwards. Mr President, what you need to aim your energies toward is the fights against over expenditure, corruption and prudent economic policy formulation. Stop entertaining borrowing as the cost is huge to the nation and you are destroying this country with this lazy approach to critical matters.

  1. so the bloody councils misunderstood you mr ecl ???!!!! i doubt it but it seems your directive has misfired. one adage says make hay whilst the sun is shining. so millers like an prudent business muntu will take advantage to make profits whilst an opportunity prevails. The only ball that is kicked from one hard wall to another is the consumer in this case.

  2. Rhetoric for public consumption. He knows the cost of living has increased, even if maize was bought at last year’s prices, just eating to gain energy to go and mill is more expensive than last year for millers.

  3. “president Evelyn Nguleka says milling is not a complicated and sophisticated business to warrant higher mealie- meal prices when the country has enough maize stocks.”
    Shame on you Evelyn, instead of telling the President about high fertilizer prices which concerns farmers you claim to represent, you are talking millers who are not directly under you. Let the millers speak for themselves as they know exactly their cost structure.

    • Exactly! That woman should have told the president that maize is one of the inputs, but not the only. Other inputs such as labour, transportation, equipment maintainance, energy (electricity), advertising all come into play when costing a product.

  4. Comment: so the president thinks people only need mealimeal? even if mealie meals comes down to 1kwacha life would be unbearable. its not just unga, what about ndiyo. do you mr president bother to check the price of beef, sugar etc?

  5. Please Mr President any business man looks at current cost of purchases in determining the prices of sales. Surely even if you are not a businessman this is a matter of simple logic sir. Let me make it simple for you sir and other dimwits who think like you on this platform.A businessman must sell at the current market price for him/her to be able to buy the next consignment for sale. If he/she sells at the historical price, in real terms he/she would be making a loss hence not be able to continue in business because the current cost of purchases have gone up.

    I hope I have helped sir. The job for you sir is to reduce the cost of doing business in Zambia and then the rest will fall in place.

  6. “There can be no justification, for instance, why maize and fertiliser, supplied on the market when the exchange rate was below the current rate, should go up suddenly!” … President Lungu Said

    Now Let me tell you why Sir.

    Those millers are not going to buy old stock fuel, old stock spare parts, and old stock other inputs. This same stock of maize must give them returns to continue business in the present economy.

    To illustrate: If a wheel-burrow pusher used to charge K5 for a load from City Market to Kulima and buy A LOAF of bread for his family from that one load. It is just logical for him today to charge K10 for the same load so that he can buy A LOAF for his family. Don’t ask him when he bought his wheel burrow, Sir!!!!! The fundamentals have changed

    • This is a humorous illustration,……. if it was not serious! It can not get any simpler than this. At every grade this is should be understood; hopefully.

  7. There is pure exploitation in Zed. I live in a society that sincerely prices their products based on whether or not it is local or not. Local produce hardly changes price-wise until a particular stock is exhausted and even then the increase is minimal. The price of imported products of the same kind do! Is it that Zambian producers – even of vipiango and toothpicks – are using imported inputs? No ethics and no compunction at all – just plain exploitation that we inherited from our colonizers. Mind you that design of governance does not exist where you “imported” it from…

    • @Kalok you are asking. Is it that Zambian producers – even of vipiango and toothpicks – are using imported inputs? I have just answered your question immediately above.

      Let me try again.

      If this vipiango seller used to sell 3 vipiangos in order to buy ONE TABLET of soap that was at K6. Since now the price of soap has increased to K9, it is 100% acceptable for the same seller to increase his vipiango from K2 each to K3 so that he can still buy ONE TABLET of soap from 3 vipiangos.

      Also remember the Vipiango vendor will get on a bus to take his vipiangos to where he sells them. Na tumalegeni tuja are imported if you don’t know.

      The solution, like @Lucy said above is to reduce the cost of doing business across the board.

  8. times like this just need fresh minds. the solution for now is change of government. get me right. this will restore the investor confidence from both internal and external which has been lost. we really have to start over again from the trading policies in the constitution to setting of priorities. its simple basic economics that prices of commodities will go up.

Comments are closed.

Read more

Local News

Discover more from Lusaka Times-Zambia's Leading Online News Site - LusakaTimes.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading