Government has proposed to spend K53.14 billion in 2016 National Budget, representing 25.8 percent of GDP.
Presenting the budget in Parliament this afternoon, Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda says the budget will be financed through domestic revenues of K42.11 billion and grants from co-operating partners of K550 million.
Mr Chikwanda says financing will comprise K6.07 billion in net external financing representing 2.9 percent of GDP and net domestic borrowing of K1.75 billion representing 0.9 percent of GDP, with amortization projected at K2.66 billion.
He has allocated K727.9 million to the 2016 tripartite elections and the referendum, while external and domestic debt interests have been allocated K3.6 billion and K3.5 billion respectively.
Mr Chikwanda has allocated K717,013,167.00 to the Local Government Equalisation Fund,K536,237,121.00 to the Sinking funding and K100,000,000 towards awards and compensation.
He has further allocated K13.2 billion towards economic affairs and K3.1 billion for defence and K1.8 billion public order and safety.
Mr Chikwanda has also proposed to spend K4.4 billion to the health sector in order to ensure equitable access to quality health care.
He says this allocation includes K754 million for the procurement of drugs and medical supplies and K340.7 million for completion of ongoing health infrastructure development projects.
He adds that the allocation to the health sector also includes K73.8 million for the net recruitment of additional frontline health personnel and K6.3 million towards the establishment of the National Social Health Insurance Scheme.
The Minister has proposed to spend K9.1 billion on education and skills development, with K1 billion earmarked for various infrastructural projects in the sector, such as shools,universities and trades training institutes, while K217.8 million is for the recruitment of additional K5,000 teachers.
And Mr Chikwanda proposed to increase the capital allowance for implements, machinery and plant used in the generation of electricity to 50 percent from 25 percent.
This is to encourage the development of sustainable and alternative sources of energy.
He has also proposed to extend the 10 year period for carrying forward of losses for businesses generating electricity using hydro and thermal, to businesses generating electricity using other sources of energy such as wind and solar, but excluding wind.
And the Finance Minister has proposed to restructure the current withholding tax system on rentals to provide for a landlord to account for tax on rentals in circumstances where the tenant cannot withhold the tax, subject to approval by the ZRA Commissioner General.
He has also proposed to simplify the taxation of the insurance industry by removing Value Added Tax and introducing a levy at the rate of 3 percent on insurance premiums.
He has further proposed to increase the specific exercise duty rate on cigarettes to K200 from K90 per 1,000 sticks and introduce incentives to support local manufacture of cigarettes.
Mr Chikwanda has proposed to adjust upwards customs duty on selected categories of motor vehicles excluding buses and trucks.
He further proposed to introduce a surcharge of K2,000 on motor vehicles older than 5 years from the year of manufacture.
He says all the revenue measures will take effect from 1st January 2016, apart from measures relating to consideration fees on land which will take effect from midnight tonight.
BELOW IS THE FULL BUDGET SPEECH
USELESS BUDGET NOTHING FOR THE CIVIL SERVANTS FOR A THIRD YEAR RUNNING.WE ILL PUNISH YOU PF.
How much of this money will be stolen or unaccounted for after 2016 ?
Chikwanda was Finance Minister in 1973, and in 1974 the economy started getting bad. Chikwanda is Finance Minister now, so as it was in the beginning so shall it be in the end. Zambians never learn. A fossil Finance Minister + a visionless president =disaster
Mbinji. Read the full budget not just the headline! Are you really that lazy?
” Chikwanda was Finance Minister in 1973, and in 1974 the economy started getting bad. ”
Everyting AC has done today was conventional and wrong. The IMF told him to load up on debt, he loaded up on debt.
However, the economy of 1974 worldwide was a direct effect of the oil crisis, which was caused by the end of the Vietnam War, and the massive inflation that was caused by it in the US. War is by definition inflationary – bombs are hauled great distances to even greater cost, and then blown up.
I would have to check, however as a copper exporter, Zambia may also have been hit because of the fall in the demand for bullets and bombs when the Vietnam War ended. 🙂
Wait a minute! what is this fossil doing with that funny briefcase? I thought he had retired..
k217.8 million is for the additional recruitment of K 5000,teachers.can someone simplify wht it means.
It means that this article is all about throwing numbers around randomly. A few millions here a few billions there. Perhaps a billion or two allocated for administrative expenses a.k.a. personal piggy banks
HH v KAMBWILI FULL EXCHANGE, A MUST READ
If you should ever read something in full, here it is.
Here is the full exchange :
CK: “I want to ask Mr. HH but first and foremost I want to advise him that this country will only develop when all of us start aiming at developing the country and not aiming at removing one government from power in order for us to come into government. This issue of the devaluation of the kwacha has been caused largely by fall in commodity prices. Zambia depends on copper to bring in foreign exchange. Ehhhhhh, ehhhhh, Brazil depends on its teal to bring in foreign exchange. South African depends on commodities like platinum, gold etc to bring in foreign exchange. The rand in South Africa has depreciated from $1 to ZAR5 in the last six months to $1 to ZAR14…
Secondly, load shedding is all over the region. There is load shedding in Zimbabwe, there is load shedding in South Africa, there is load shedding in Malawi, there’s load she..are you telling me that it is PF which is the government in all these countries? In South Africa for example, the rand has dropped. We have never heard the opposition political parties saying it is the ANC that has caused the depreciation of the rand. In Brazil, the Brazilian money has depreciated. Yesterday I was listening on.. on..on sky. In Australia, mines have been put on care and maintenance because of the fallen commodity prices and their currency has depreciated. We have never heard the opposition saying the ones who have caused this are those who are in government. Why do you want to mislead the nation on…
U useless prick! Is PF paying you to hide their nonsense away?????????????????
This article is ABOUT THE BUDGET!!!!!!!!!
WE have already seen the reports on Kambwili Clown and HH.
LT PLEASE BLOCK THIS MAKWINGO. He is just an a55hole trying to confuse your readers
issues that we expect that you know that they have been largely been caused by these external factors in the global economy. You call yourself an economist. Somebody has asked you a simple question, tell us three things you would do so that they can give impact on the power generation. And he has also asked you three things you can do to make the Kwacha pick up, you have failed to answer. You’re politicking, no in Zesco they have employed cadres. Are you telling me that employing cadres is what has caused load shedding? Be factual and do not mislead the people of Zambia. You see, if we are going to behave like this, this country will go into what is known as political instability. Where because of deceiving the people, they’ll change governments every five years and once that happens,…
nobody would want to invest in a country which is politically unstable. Because you come in HH and when these factors that are beyond your control also happen, you’ll also fail to sort out these issues like the foreign exchange and all that. What we need is for you people in the opposition and us to work together to ensure that we invest in other sectors of energy and preserve in other sectors of energy. It is not going to take a year or two. How long does it take to make a coal fired power generation plant? A minimum of 36 months. 36 months is 3 years. How long have we had these problems? In the last four months. Let’s stop misleading the people.
HH: ” First and foremost I am very glad that Mr. Kambwili has called and his call confirms, what he has said on this radio confirms his limited understanding, complete limited understanding. It has confirmed the poor quality of minister he is and I will show you why just now. He says if cadres are employed in Zesco, how does that cause load shedding? This is how it does. You remove an engineer who works at a generating plant or in transmission line or distribution, then you replace them with an unqualified cadre because he is a PF cadre. What that does, you have taken away the skill that allow zesco to improve the generation of electricity based on installed capacity, which may arise from poor maintenance because you brought in a person who has no skills. Kambwili doesn’t understand…
2000 surcharge on vehicles older than 5 yrs? eli lwanya ba ma taxi business.
that and it very clear he doesn’t understand and this very sad. He shouldn’t be a minister. The contexualization is that when you remove skills or the people you don’t like because you suspect they support UPND and replace them with unskilled people, your ability to maintain the integrity of the assets is impaired. When that is impaired, it reduces the amount of electricity you can supply to customers and then leads to load shedding Mr. Honourable Kambwili sir. You got it wrong.
Next, he talked about load shedding, it is everywhere in the region. Let’s talk of South Africa, load shedding is in South Africa because of the demand, the increase in the demand for commercial and industrial use, economic activity. That what you want, it’s not the case in Zambia. The existing demand is failing to receive electricity, and is not because of growth. If you have a challenge of shortage of supply of electricity because you’re growing more, there’s demand because you’re producing more goods, it is fine in finance and in economics because you have a market which you need to work on a supply side. It is simple, he doesn’t understand.
Let me serve him a little bit of grey matter, what PF could have done in 3 months?? What is he talking about? He’s been in government for four years. He’s going to a full term. What three months is he talking about? He doesn’t realize he has been in government for four years.
Honourable Kambwili, you talked about re introducing national service in 2011, 2012. To you 2012 and 2015 is equal to 3 months? You have been in government for a long time. It is not my brother. In four years you can do a lot. Because you have no plan, you have no program you think it is three months, that’s why you’re crying for 2016, you ned to deliver.
The issue to say the rand has depreciated as well and therefore it is ok for the kwacha to depreciate. It is total ignorance. Lack of understanding. Here is the situation, the South African economy and the Zambian economy are fundamentally different. We are an import dependent economy. South Africa has a huge export element. When you’re a central bank governor or minister in charge of finance in south Africa, there are times you want your rand to depreciate a little bit so that you make your exports competitive. When you make your exports competitive on price in foreign terms you can export more. We call it in finance and economics, you make your exports more elastic. Kambwili, my brother please respect those who know more than you in certain areas. Even here, when we improve our exports…
If you’re an import dependent economy and you tinker around, the way you introduced SI33, I told you that you’re going to damage the kwacha and you have damaged the kwacha. You have damaged the economy. Did you listen to me? No! What did you call me? You call me politicking, I wasn’t politicking. I was telling you based on knowledge. And what I told you has happened. Don’t cry.
You’re saying Zambia is a mono economy, copper. My advice to you, don’t hide behind that. What should you do? Do what Botswana has done to their economy, when the price of diamond is good, the Botswana economy offload more diamonds on the market. They work on a productive sector and they earn more money, increase their international reserves. That’s why Botswana has high foreign reserves which you need on a rain day. When you do that, you’ll be able to have high international reserves. You have been eating into the reserves you found from MMD. You’re consuming everything because you like extravagance. We’re saying to you cut your costs. Don’t compare yourself to Botswana. Don’t use examples you cannot defend. You’re actually damaging yourself.
Next, you talked about let’s aim for development not for changing government. Now, what is leadership? It is not aiming to change government, it is aiming to improve Zambia and the people discharged with the responsibility of improving Zambia are those in leadership. To use their vision, to use their skills. You have failed to use your vision, you have no vision. Your president said you have no vision. You have no skills as you have demonstrated on this score and therefore, you need to be removed so that those who have skills to use the better days when copper is selling properly and like someone said, can you manipulate the London Metal Exchange? No, but I will manipulate variables at my disposal. You then use an instrument called windfall tax which you denied when we told you to…
You called us jokers. In fact, you called us lunatics. Which the late credible President Mwanawasa introduced and if it was left there, it would have added to the reserves which you have blown up and eaten through travel allowances. You would have been in a better position to support the mines through incentives when the copper prices are low. That comes from leadership. That leadership in the PF is not there. That’s why you need to come out. I’m asking Zambians, register as voters.”
I blame the appointing authority silence is golden mwaona a chimbwili leave economics to the people with the grooming for it,
Comment:
Well done. UPND preys on the gullibility of some on these sites. Obviously we can’t be taken for any ride, whatsoever!
chitole
K53 BILLION from K37 billion last budget?! So we aren’t that poor after all ! always trying to catch up with the galloping dollar
The devaluation of our currency means the budget is smaller.
you guyz i wonder why you keep on complaing and critisazing the PF government over loadshading,the thing is that the water level has gone down,are you telling me that the its the PF that drunk water from the dam?
Yes. It is called whiskey and water. Jemasoni has drunk all the water from the dam.
This same budget a year ago (K6 to $1) would have been worth $8.5 billion, today it’s just $4.4 billion. How on earth will they purchase the same medicenes procured last year?? Have you even factored civil servant wage increases considering that hyperinflation will soon set in??? How on earth will they keep inflation to single digits??? This budget is full of descrepencies!! Indicative of inept leadership!!
Just look at that Fossil in that photo…surely would you entrust him with a budget for primary school tuckshop? This is a waste of paper and time since these empty tins are reckless and forever misappropriating taxpayers funds.
The tiny state of Delaware has an estimated annual budget of $4.7 billion for the year 2016 being the lowest in all the states
The state of California has the highest estimated budget of $167.6 billion for the year 2016 followed by New York at $142 billion, Texas at $99 billion estimated for the year 2016.
above all that is happening around the world is all written in the holy scripture
Doesn’t matter how big i$ your budget if you have dunderheads managing it.We have more land and more resources than Kenya yet our budget is a measly $4.7b compared to Kenya’s budget of $22bn coz they have better economic managers.
This old, corrupt useless man is still the finance minister?
These cooperating partners giving us little grants for our budget who are they? The Europeans owe us repayments for 400 years of colonisation, slavery, usurping of our land and natural resources, massacres of our ancestors etc. We need more than ka k500 million
this man is the replica of me burns in the simpsons……
he is pure evil….walking corpse
Actually Mr. Burns and Smithers seem to be based on David Rockefeller and Reuben Jeffery III.
I don’t see anything allocated towards Information Technology, or the constitution.
It may seem like technology is not important, but we are living in the information age — we cannot develop as a nation unless we have access to information.
But we love poverty, we are addicted to poverty.
Good luck!
#OneZambia
When your a 77 yr old finance minister, IT means learning to use your TV remote so why would he put it in the budget, Zambia needs young cabinate ministers
This budget is awful! Doesn’t make sense. Import n cars that are already taxed very highly. Government does not earn the duty it is supposed to have because the duties are not published so customs charge anything and as long as there is a bribe it doesn’t matter. If the government publishes the duty on cars all the revenue would go into their coffers. Evidence that ZRA officials are corrupt is there. Visit Chalala. Most of those big houses are owned by ZRA officials. Publish duty. ZRA collects a lot of money but it is “stolen.” Most cars in Zambia are older than 5 years. This new regulation will not affect the leaders. After all they ensure that we buy them brand new cars.
Zambia needs a leader with a broken heart to understand the way of God’s plan for Zambia.Things are not alright God help Zambia.
NOTHING ON PAYE?
NOTHING MY BOY ON PAYE. AGONY CONTINUES.