Finance Minister Felix Mutati said that the country’s economic fundamentals are brightening up and are expected to remain stable next year.
Speaking during a media briefing, Mr. Mutati however, stated that the country is still grappling with debt sustainability.
He says beyond major tax revenues, and non tax revenues that augment the Zambia Revenue Authority’s efforts, the county still has had draw backs in the implementation of fiscal devices and resource mobilization.
He however, says that the ministry is coming up with ways of dealing with domestic resource mobilization.
Mr. Mutati adds that another challenge the government has been faced with is fiscal consolidation.
He says the government cannot spend money which it does not have, and neither can it borrow beyond its capacity to repay.
Meanwhile Finance Minister Felix Mutati says the Bank of Zambia has now reched an agreement with shareholders of Intermarket Banking Corporation Zambia Limited on how to restoreb the bank to its solvency and long term sustainability.
Mr Mutati told Parliament in a ministerial statement that the shareholders comprise a consortium that includes the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Madison Group among others.
Mr Mutati has also disclosed that a management team headed by an interim managing director has been identified by the shareholders and has since commenced work with a view to opening the bank expeditiously.
He adds that the interim managing director will in due course announce the reopening modalities and associated timelines.
Meanwhile Mr Mutati says for the first five months to May 2017,revenues collected including taxes amounted to K16.67 billion against a budget amount of K18.46 billion representing a 10 percent underperformance on aggregate.
You willfully robbed yourselves of substantial collections from the Post, hence the gapping hole. I mean your dead ZNBC, Times and Daily don’t pay tax, so what do you expect?
I thought with the toll-gates in place shortfalls would completely be eliminated. Oops, that may well be PF money!
Post was not paying tax what hole are you talking about
From 2009 until it was closed in 2016, the post wasn’t paying tax, so which substantial collections are you talking about??? To put development, tax and Fred M’membe in the same sentence is criminal!!!! Besides, post was one commercial entity; what about entities like Zambeef, Southgate, Multichoice, etc who have been patriotically making SUBSTANTIAL CONTRIBUTIONS???
“country’s economic fundamentals are brightening up” implies that the fundamentals are / were dark
Instead of talking about fake GDP Growth Rates Minister should clarify Zambia’s Debt Stock. Is it $17.2 billion, $11.2 billion or $7.2 billion? The IMF Board will not approve a Loan to Zambia without a Debt Forensic Audit now that there I
Imf whom you implicated in your lies clarified the figure and shamed your evil plans. Where you in a hole when that article by Imf was released?
Mozambique concealed its Debt Stock for some years. Both IMF and the World Bank suspended their Loan Facilities to Moz.Since then a Forensic Audit has been completed and at least $500 million is confirmed missing. IMF Board will insist that a Forensic Audit is done first to establish the True Debt Stock for Zambia and put measures in place to ensure that Zambia does not repeat this. Apart from the Debt issue IMF will not approve or disburse the Loan Proceeds to Zambia with HH still in Jail. IMF cannot be seen to be financing the continued Persecution of HH thru Prosecution. Without respect for Rule of Law, Court Orders,Good Governance,and Human Rights, Lungu and Mutati should forget about new Western loans,grants and Investments.
Mozambique is not Zambia and Zambia is not Mozambique…IMF and hh are not related in any way as the IMF has already pledged that it WILL give Zambia the $1.3bn bailout package. You see Lombe when you wake up every morning and read that rubbish from the mast, watchdog etc you lose track of reality. Those brainwashing media outlets are bent on making the current government look bad in every aspect and sadly people like you are increasingly falling into their evil trap. Just the other day an intelligent young accountant tried to convince us that inflation in Zambia was above 30% as he was fed this info by upnd leaders, really sad indeed. To see reasonable people like yourself turn into DONKEYS really breaks my heart!!!!
True zzmbisn you are a pro pf supporter so ypur thpughts must be biased. No IMF havent agreed to giving zambia the money. They meet again in august and the next round of payments are in december. Loan is subject to zambia achieving set criteria financially. I do not believe that the release of HH is one of them. I believe the loan will be given . The reason that govt is making positive statements about economy rule of law and social stability is to publicly influence IMF. Whi was the intelligent young accountant. You make too many open ended statements. International community uses its diplomats to report about conditions the ground. Not listening to biased posts on lusaka times
Ba Mutati, please spare us! The announcement that IDC and Madison are among the new shareholders in Inter-market Bank is one of the most reckless and corrupt decisions by a Minister of Finance. The shareholder of Madison Mr. Lawrence Sikutwa is on the Board of IDC and therefore a conflict of interest arises. Furthermore, IDC is failing to support its SOEs i.e. Zamtel, Daily Mail, Times, NCZ, among others, therefore why burden it with Inter-market Bank when other private sector players can step in so that the meager resources go to the struggling SOEs or other needy social sectors. This transaction needs to be clearly explained how Madison and IDC arrived at their joint investment decision. IDC smells of State Capture Corruption
Mr. Mutati adds that another challenge the government has been faced with is fiscal consolidation.
The challenge you have is corruption and outright theft of public funds. This is the immediate issue you should be addressing.