An unidentified man has been beaten to death in Mwanga village of Nakonde district in Muchinga province.

Muchinga Police Deputy Commanding Officer, Lucky Munkondya, said the deceased was allegedly killed by a group of motorbike riders from Nakonde town who accused him of stealing a motorbike.

Ms. Munkondya, who confirmed the incident to the Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in Nakonde today, stated that the incident happened on September 29, 2022 around 16:00 hours near Mwanga primary school.

“A group of people believed to be Nakonde residents went with motorbikes in the village and got the now deceased from where he was hiding and started beating him,” she said.

She said it is believed that the victim fled to Mwanga village to seek refuge after allegedly stealing a motorbike.
Ms. Munkondya disclosed that the offenders used sticks, iron bars and stones in the act.

“After catching him, the mob took the now deceased away and along the road leading to Mwanga primary school. They started beating him with sticks, iron bars and stones until he died. Thereafter they jumped onto their motorcycles and rode away,” she said.

She added that the matter was later reported to Nakonde Police Station by Matthews Chansa, a teacher at Mwanga primary school.

Ms. Munkondya revealed that the police officers who visited the scene found the body lying facing down with several body injuries and tied hands.

She said the body has since been deposited at Nakonde district hospital mortuary awaiting post-mortem and identification while investigations are underway.

“The docket has since been opened and no arrests have been made yet. Efforts are being made to bring the culprits to book,” she said.

The Energy Regulation Board (ERB) has increased the price of petroleum products by K1.20 for petrol and K3.04 for diesel while the price of paraffin has been reduced by 65 ngwee effective midnight today.

The new price for one litre of petrol is K22.74 from K21.54 while that of low sulfur diesel is K26.16 from K23.12 and a litre of kerosene will now cost K16.06 from K16.71.

Jet A-1 fuel will now cost K26.69 per litre from K26.50.

ERB Board Chairperson, Reynolds Bowa announced the adjustment of the pump price of petroleum products at a press briefing in Lusaka today.

Mr. Bowa further announced that the board has also commenced the full regulation of retail price of Jet A -1 at airports, which will be determined by applicable prices on a monthly basis.

He stated that the regulated Jet A-1 price has been set at K20.69 per litre for the month of October,2022.

Mr. Bowa said the regulation on Jet A-1 prices have been necessitated by the need to attain regional competitiveness.

He noted that the changes in the pump prices and the posted airfield price are due to trends in the global petroleum prices and the exchange rate of the United States dollars to the Zambian Kwacha in the period between the last and the current price review.

“Specifically, international oil prices continued to decline due to the global slowdown. This is aimed at concerns of inflationary pressure worldwide, anticipated slowdown of global economic growth and continued fears of global recession,” he explained.

Mr. Bowa further said during the review period, the Zambian Kwacha continued to appreciate mainly due to increased supply of foreign exchange on the market on the backdrop of the continued positive market sentiments following the conclusion of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) package in August 2022.

He explained that since the last price review in August, the Kwacha appreciated month on month by 3.23 percent from an average of K16.12 per United States dollar to K15.60 per United States dollar.

“In September 2022, government issued statutory instrument No.59 on value added tax (VAT) and No.44 of 2022 on customs and excise duty in order to restore taxes on Petroleum products which were revised in January 2021. The taxes which have been restored are excise duty and VAT,” Mr. Bowa said.

The ERB Board Chairperson said the government has restored excise duty from K0.64 per litre to K2.07 per litre while VAT has been restored from zero percent to 16 percent on petrol.

Mr. Bowa added that on diesel, the government has also restored excise duty from zero Kwacha per litre to K0.66 per litre while VAT has been restored from zero percent to 16 percent.

He said this is in line with ERB pricing mechanism, the combined effectiveness of the charges in the three factors exchange rate, international oil prices and taxes which has resulted in the determined charges in the national uniform pump prices for October.

The Zambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI) has hailed government for the K167 billion proposed budget for 2023.

ZACCI President, Chabusha Kawesha said the proposed 2023 national budget demonstrates that government listens and builds the credibility of the Zambian market.

Mr. Kawesha said this in a press statement issued to ZANIS in reaction to the proposed budget which Minister of Finance and National Planning, Situmbeko Musokotwane, presented to parliament today.

He explained that the income pressure has been balanced for both individual and corporate income.

He said the proposed budget will stimulate growth for improved livelihoods as highlighted in various strategic development areas.

Mr. Kawesha further said from the budget overview, sub-sectors like agriculture, tourism, information technology, telecommunications and mining lead in terms of job creation.

He further praised government for giving attention to the education sub-sector with a notable objective of changing the curriculum and skills development which he said will add value to learners.

He said the call for a stronger platform in churning out industry ready graduates will be resolved with such measures highlighted in the budget.

“I call upon the private sector to leverage on focus placed on science, technology and innovation to invest in research and development,” Mr. Kawesha said.

On the measure for further liberalisation of the petroleum energy sub-sector, Mr. Kawesha said this has been long overdue.

He said it was pleasing that the UPND government has done it.

He said this will allow private players to invest and compete effectively, adding that competition will eventually trigger price reductions.

The ZACCI President further noted that the planned advancements in the area of electrification will increase industrial spots countrywide thereby boosting the processing subsector.

“It is our belief that policies surrounding the public private partnership framework will be accelerated in implementation as the initiatives they bring will impact economic growth,” he said.

Mr. Kawesha added that the budget approach for 2023 will speak to a lot of enablers as most areas of the economy stand to benefit from it.

Finance and National planning Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane, has unveiled a proposed K167 billion national budget for 2023 to cater for all sectors of the economy.

Government has increased the Pay As you Earn (PAYE) tax threshold from K4, 500 to K4,800 in next year’s national budget.

This means that only employees getting paid K4,800 and above will be taxed Pay As You Earn.

Presenting the K167 billion proposed 2023 national budget in Parliament today, Minister of Finance and National Planning, Situmbeko Musokotwane said the move is meant to mitigate the cost of living for many Zambian citizens.

Dr. Musokotwane said the measure will add 21,509 more workers to those who do not currently pay this tax on account of being below the PAYE threshold.

“The measure will also increase disposable income for salaried households by K1 billion,” he disclosed.

The minister also proposed to increase tax credit for persons with disabilities to K600 per month from the current K500.

He further proposed the abolishment of the current two-tier taxation system in the telecommunication subsector, which provided for 30 percent tax on profit of up to K250,000 and 40 percent on profit above K250,000, and replace it with a single tax rate of 35 percent.

Meanwhile, the government has proposed an increase of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) allocation for the 2023 budget to each constituency from K25.7 million to K28.3 million, which is an increment of K2.6 million.

Dr. Musokotwane said increased CDF allocation is an overall K4.4 billion, which is an increase of K401 million from the 2022 national budget.

He stated that this will address the challenges faced by communities especially in rural areas.

“Priority will be on improving water and sanitation at health and education facilities, procurement of school desks, electrification of schools and hospitals as well as provision of maternity services at health centres,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Dr. Musokotwane proposed to spend K66.2 billion or 39.5 percent of the budget on the General Public Services function.

He said of this amount, K30.5 billion will go towards domestic debt servicing while K18.2 billion is for external debt service.

“The allocation towards debt service does not take into account debt restructuring and will be subject to change once an agreement is reached with creditors. We appeal to our creditors to support us so that, together, we can expeditiously conclude the debt restructuring,” Dr. Musokotwane said.

And Dr. Musokotwane expressed worry that Zambia’s mineral production has stagnated in comparison to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

He said Zambia’s mineral production has for many years stagnated at around 800,000 metric tonnes while DRC is performing better.

He has therefore announced the restructuring of the mineral royalty regime as a measure for Zambia to regain its glory in the mining sector.

“The tax will now apply on the incremental value in each adjusted price band as opposed to the aggregate value when the price crosses the respective price threshold.

I further propose to reduce the lowest marginal rate to 4.0 percent from 5.5 percent. The revenue loss from this measure is estimated at K2.8 billion,” he said

A Financial Analyst and Economist, Trevor Hambayi, has said the Zambian economy needs to be growing at a minimum of 5.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in order to maintain its revenue generation and provide basic services whose population is growing at an average of 2.2 percent annually

 Mr. Hambayi, who is a Senior Partner at Development Finance Associates, observed that the Zambian economy has unfortunately been growing far below the minimum GDP growth in the past seven years.

The GDP growth trend has been lower than the required minimum from 2015 when the country recorded a 2.92 percent mainly due to a global crash in commodity prices, which largely was the reduction in copper prices in the case of Zambia. There was also a drought in the same period which caused electricity load shedding in the country.

In 2016, the GDP growth was 3.7 percent, 3.5 percent in 2017 and it rose to 4 percent in 2018.

“In 2019, our GDP was at 1.4 percent, in 2020, with Covid-19, we went into that recession of minus 3 percent and then we started to recover at 2.8 percent in 2021 and 3.6 percent in 2022,” he explained.

Mr. Hambayi said during the national budget analysis media workshop in Lusaka today that the minimum growth for Zambia to effectively deal with the poverty levels in the country is 16 percent growth.

The workshop, which also highlighted budget components which journalists should look out for in the 2023 national budget, was organised by the USAID-Zambia Revenue for Growth Project.

And Mr. Hambayi has disclosed that the domestic resource mobilization was an important factor towards managing national development in a sustainable manner.

He noted that currently, countries in sub-Saharan Africa are striving to achieve a recommended 22 to 23 percent domestic resource mobilisation of their GDP but are gravitating at between 17 and 19 percent.

He explained that Zambia was facing challenges in domestic resource mobilisation because of the citizens’ low savings rate, which are not sufficient to support government borrowing from the local resources.

“If the funds are not sufficient to support that borrowing, it means that we are actually spending the capital that we are supposed to invest into the economy and that will start to contract the economy,” he explained.

Mr. Hambayi further pointed out that Zambia’s dependence on foreign aid and Zambia Revenue Authority’s (ZRA) low capacity to collect revenue were other challenges that are limiting domestic resource mobilisation for the country.

He explained that ZRA’s institutional capacity to collect revenue was mainly hampered by the fact that a large component of the Zambian economy comprises an informal private sector.

“So it is not very easy to go and collect taxes from there even though the only tax that is missing from the informal sector is pay as you earn,” he said.

In Zambia, Pay As You Earn (PAYE) is the biggest component of the income stream that the government depends on hence the need to improve its capacity to tax the informal sector.

He added that economic stagnation has also limited the domestic resource mobilisation for the Zambian government.

“Having to deal with this economic stagnation will solve all our problems,” he said.

Mr. Hambayi has since cited increasing taxes, ensuring tax compliance, broadening the tax base and growing domestic capital through individuals’ savings as some of the options for scaling-up domestic resource mobilisation for the country.

He however observed that poor tax compliance in the country could emanate from low income among many Zambians and high taxes which the people need to pay.

“The tax base is very limited. We only have 900,000 formal jobs in this country, and then 1.2 million informal jobs, and another almost 2.9 million jobs in the agriculture sector,” he said, adding that the contracted GDP also limits the tax base.

Meanwhile, Chief of Party at the USAID Revenue for Growth Activity, Edward Koos, said government will need to significantly increase efficiency and compliance in tax collection.

Mr. Koos said government should also rebuild a culture that productively engages the private sector in formulating more equitable and broad-based tax policy initiatives.

“The Revenue for Growth Project aims to help Zambia improve domestic revenue mobilisation (DRM) and expand the fiscal space for investments in public service delivery and poverty reduction,” he said.

He further disclosed that the project will engage both government and non-governmental stakeholders to build capacity in tax policy analysis, improving tax compliance and administration and strengthening the tax culture in a manner that facilitates private sector growth and accountability relationships with taxpayers.

Mr. Koos revealed that activities under the Revenue for Growth Project will support four objectives namely improving tax and non-tax revenue administration and compliance, strengthening tax policy, enhancing public-private dialogue and enhancing capacity to address other fiscal policy and management priorities.

Tomorrow, September 30, 2022, Minister of Finance and National Planning, Situmbeko Musokotwane is expected to present the 2023 national budget in parliament.

Minister of Agriculture Mtolo Phiri has clarified that a voter’s card is not a requirement for one to qualify to benefit from the Farmer Input Support Programme.

And the Minister says a beneficiary farmer is not required to pay any other money apart from the K400 contribution for them to access farming inputs under FISP.

Delivering a Ministerial statement to parliament on the procurement of fertilizer this afternoon, Mr. Phiri said qualifications for one to be on the programme include being a member of a cooperative or farmer organization dully registered under the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises or the Registrar of Cooperatives.

Mr. Phiri said the beneficiary should be a registered farmer, should cultivate 5 hectares of land or less, should have the capacity to pay the K400 contribution to the government, and should be a Zambian carrying a Green NRC with an active phone number.

Meanwhile, Mr. Phiri said the government has saved over 153 million Dollars from the procurement of over 300, 000 metric tons of fertilizer for the 2022/2023 farming season.

Delivering a ministerial statement on the procurement of fertilizer this afternoon, Mr. Phiri said 153, 665.1 metric tonnes are Urea while 153,665.10 metric tonnes are D-compound fertilizer.

Meanwhile, the National Union Of Small Scale Farmers In Zambia-NUSFAZ- has disclosed that over 100,000 farmers have been left out of the government sponsored Farmer Input Support Program-FISP- for the upcoming 2022/2023 farming season.

NUSFAZ Executive Director Ebony Lolozhi says his union has since begun engaging the government through the ministry of agriculture, to see a way forward regarding the affected small scale farmers.

And Mr. Lolozhi has warned that failure by government to begin to adequately finance climate change interventions through the national budget and create capacity for farmer’s resilience against climate change as well as fund research and extension services, disasters will continue to threaten Zambia’s food security.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Mtolo Phiri has disclosed that government has in an effort to avoid fertilizer supply companies from failing to deliver on their contracts, not awarded any company a tender to supply more than 100,000 metric tonnes of the commodity.

Mr. Phiri told Phoenix News that during the last farming season, some fertilizer suppliers failed to supply over 100 000 metric tonnes of fertilizer and that one of them still has a balance of about 17,000 metric tonnes of the input.