Thursday, March 28, 2024

UPND Government should not over-tax its citizens in an effort to facilitate economic recovery

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Copperbelt based Good Governance activist Peter Mulenga says the United Party for National Development (UPND) Government should not over-tax its citizens in an effort to facilitate economic recovery.

Mr. Mulenga said the New Dawn Government should implement austerity measures gradually in order not to overburden citizens with the high cost of living.

He observed that the cost of goods and services have gone up in the country owing to the recent increase in fuel pump prices despite workers’ income remaining the same.

“In recent weeks, the country has witnessed a number of social media campaigns, largely triggered by the astronomical rise in the cost of fuel, and increased Road Tax, cost of living, regardless of the fact that the earnings of most people have remained stagnant for months if not years,” Mr. Mulenga said.

“The rest aside, only someone living in an ivory tower would be blinded to the fact that life has become unbearable for the majority. This is driven by the sharp rise in prices of essential goods and services such as fuel, housing rentals, cooking oil and water, surprisingly there is also an increment in prices of medicine in Pharmacies. God save us,” he said.

Mr. Mulenga said the government has a duty to ensure that taxes or exorbitant prices of goods and services do not unnecessarily hurt citizens.

“Look, it should not take people marching on the streets for the government to bring about the change that the public anticipates, in line with some of the promises that the HH-led government made prior to assuming power. There should be that constant rapport whereby the government should share with Zambians what its game plan is, in as far as curbing the economic problems that are rocking people’s lives is concerned,” Mr. Mulenga said.

“When people take to the streets and end up causing disturbances as we witnessed in the Kaunda era, it still comes back to haunt ordinary individuals whose taxes will now be diverted towards footing the bill for repairing the damage caused,” he said.

Mr. Mulenga further noted gaps in communication between the Government and the public.

“Communication is paramount and I am afraid those doing the spinning for the government are not doing much to feed the public with the right information on what is being done to address the problems associated with the economic hardships. It does not help much for the government to empathize with the people and yet fail to communicate what is being done to deal with the problem.”

“Remember, the government has that obligation to see to it that people are not being unnecessarily hurt, whether by taxes or exorbitant prices of goods. Please UPND, don’t over-tax your citizens, it’s never too late to change course,” Mr. Mulenga said.

4 COMMENTS

  1. So this is what the citizens wanted and so we shall roll with it.
    Stop complaining and continue praising bally the baal.
    All his calculations have since failed kamba ka IMF.
    Baal is not running the country, Imperialist IMF is.
    In this state of affairs you could sum it up by saying bally is a stooge.
    Baally the demigod had no right and energy to stand up to IMF. If they say you will raise taxes, bally and his fossil will go, inde bwana, yes yes yes.

  2. You are late
    You have already done that
    You give mining firms incentives and hammer your own people by increasing fuel and zesco taffies, You can’t increase the two because they are economic stimulus so kaya…

  3. Well, a few foreign mining firms will be enjoying tax holidays whilst majority poor Zambians have to pay taxes through their noses under the UPND. Inequality will increase under the UPND as the gap between the rich and the poor widens. Economic recovery under the UPND will mean “to those who are rich more will be added to them, while to those who are poor even the little they have will be taken away from them”. UPND stands to promote hard capitalism without a human face.

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