Former Kitwe Chamber of Commerce, Trade and Industry ( KCCTI ) president Raj Karamuchand has advised government to increase taxes on importation of products that that can produced locally.
Mr Karamuchand explains this will promote the growth of local industries and boosting of the economy through increased exports adding that revival of local manufacturing industries and improved agriculture sector depends highly on the protection of local producers from cheap imports, currently flooding the Zambian market.
The former KCCTI president said in an interview that local manufacturers are capable of reviving several manufacturing companies such as the textiles using the existing infrastructure such as that at Mulungushi Textiles in Kabwe and Kafue and the locally produced cotton.
He also noted that local farmers can also be producing a variety of vegetables that can be supplied to chain stores contrary to the current situation where the multi-national chain stores are getting vegetables from neighbouring countries when local farmers produce the same products.
“As local manufacturers we can start producing several products that can be exported to bring a lot of foreign exchange and also to create employment. We can even partner with foreign investors who have the capital while us we provide land and other resources, government should just increase tax on imported products so that our products can be affordable,” Mr. Karamuchand said.
Meanwhile Emerald and Semi-Precious Minerals Association of Zambia (ESMAZ) president Victor Kalesha says the 2021 national budget has not spelt out any much incentives to effect increased production in the sector.
Mr. Kalesha said the budget stresses much on value addition of the minerals and not production.
“Our expectation was that measures would be put to increase production before talking about value addition which cannot happen before production, we are yet to see how our plight has been tackled otherwise we are not seeing anything much for us unless it is embedded under what has been provided for the Medium Scale Entrepreneurs,” Mr. Kalesha said.
He complained that the small scale gemstone miners will not enjoy the conducive wind fax tax if the challenges around their production is not addressed.
Last week, during the presentation of the 2022 national budget, Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane announced several measures aimed at reviving the Zambian economic among them stimulating the manufacturing industry and increasing production in the mining sector.
Its time to walk the talk. Local producers must however address flaws in quality and standards. A strong qualify assurance is required to strenthen product competitiveness. Poor finishing and packaging are the whole mark of local products. Vegetables and fruits supplied to supermarkets are often dirty and shrivelled. You need to build the inspection capacity of the Zambia bureau of Standards and the Councils. Now there are all just dormant entities.
The Emerald President said they are not seeing anything for them in this Budget. The budget has the Value Addition benefit but not more production. My question iwe Kalesha is that what do u do with the little Emerald that u produce? Cos even if GRZ funded u to produce more, the results wud be same – that is if u export your small produced raw material, u wud definitely export large productions too and this is exactly what GRZ doesn’t want!
This is no sustainability in exporting raw materials. Only a clique of thieves would wish for more production cos there aim is quick money and have no heart for the future of this country. No more, we don’t want that. Rather produce less, and very less indeed but processed locally then exported. This way u ll make more money than someone exporting huge huge quantities of raw materials.