The opposition UPND says the unveiled 2016 budget by the PF has not addressed the plight of the poor people.
The party stated this in it’s first statement to comment on the 2016 budget presented on Friday, October 9, 2015 by Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda.
Below is the UPND statement in full:
So now we have the 2016 budget before us. Here we present our initial reaction while we prepare a more detailed analysis and alternative proposal for the Zambian people that we will issue next week.
The first thing many will observe is that the budget is bigger than last year now standing at K53.1 billion (US$4.6bn) against last year’s K46.7 billion (US$7.4 billion).
However the kwacha is much weaker, having fallen 46% against the USD in the past year, which is very problematic for an import dependent economy such as ours.
It is also worrying when you consider that the cost of everything has gone up double or sometimes even triple. For those living in poverty there was nothing in this budget to improve their situation or to help them cope with rising prices. For example on agriculture, this budget is silent on pro-poor growth.
To us this budget highlights the missed opportunities we’ve had and demonstrates the danger of a government without a strong vision for the economy, coupled with the will and determination to realise that vision. If the vast sums of Eurobond money the PF has raised during their time at State House had been deployed strategically then we could have much greater resources at our disposal to address these challenges, but this cannot happen without a vision. And so we now face an external debt of $6.3 billion compared to $4.8 billion just 9 months ago. We face this debt mountain without any hope of how we will get over it.
It is hard to credit the Minister with fiscal discipline in this budget. The theme of the budget may be ‘fiscal consolidation to safeguard our past achievement and secure a prosperous future for all’ but yet at a time of economic difficulty the size of the Cabinet has been increased in size by 25% at great expense. This appears to be an unwise investment on behalf of the Zambian people as the Government is not delivering value for money. At the same time the past achievements have been torn to pieces. So what are we safeguarding?
This clear mismatch between stated intentions and spending undermines the credibility of the Minister’s address. This is also the case when they talk yet again about diversification. This is something that has been regularly stated but no serious attempt to deliver has followed. There were other claims on inflation and reduction of budget deficit, the deficit that they have grown exponentially during their 4 years in office, where it was not made clear how they will be achieved and there is still much explaining for the PF to do. Zambians are tired of such claims without explanation, just as our economy is tired.
There was also a lack of strategic focus, something that only becomes more important when your resources are limited. For example, once again the talk of a national airline was packaged as an attractive proposition, but we are already running late on critical aviation infrastructure developments and taxes continue to choke the tourism sector. We must be serious and strategic about such matters. The Minister did not do justice to the tourism sector.
We also wonder where the targeted interventions in areas that will deliver returns, such as youth, entrepreneurs and start-ups, who can go on and create jobs for others are. We may not have vast sums of money to invest as a country but mentorship schemes and programmes to increase knowledge and skills transfer are low-cost but high-impact interventions. Given our limited resources these are some of the areas we must concentrate on, at the same time giving businesses the best chance to succeed, grow and create more jobs through clear, stable and common sense policies.
Finally, it is evident that in the face of current economic challenges Zambians need a Government that is strongly focused on delivering results. Perhaps after increasing Cabinet by another 5 ministers at a time of financial austerity the President could rectify this error by sacking 5 of his worst performing ministers if they do not deliver quickly?
At budget time the question we used to focus on was how can we make things better for Zambians and how can we improve our country together. How have we gone backwards from this to a place where the question is more about how can we stop things getting worse? The PF has taken us here during their four years in office. This should be the last PF budget.
Charles Kakoma
UPND Spokesman
This Tonga party at it again. 2 this southern province party everything is wrong. They think they are the only ones who r intelligent. Thats why yo under 5 hh always loses. God humbles the boastful & exalts the humble. Lungu our president u hav my vote again in 2016.
hakahindeans so till now you do not know UPND is the only real opposition in Zambia. Every Party seeking public office should be ready at all times to give an Initial reaction you dont wait for the famous song 90 day, what if a journalist asks you for a comment? Answers and responses should be there at all times. If you want you could say you will give a statement after studying the entire Budget but it doesnt stop you from giving your initial reaction on what you esily picked out. Later on after a careful analysis you then give a comprehensive statement Item by item thats the correct way of doing things.We have FDD that sometimes tries to be opposition it ought to be but I get disappointed sometimes especially from its President who wants to miss the target, which is PF by attacking the UPND instead of providing her party’s alternatives to the ruling party, she did the same thing during the presidential debate by attacking Green Party’s policies, by the way these two are my tribes mate, its not necessary for me to disclose this but for the comfort or discomfort of some tribalist somewhere will want to believe i also come from southern province that thinks in this manner i needed to say this. These parties are not the ones in Government so by attacking them it doesn’t help me, but it will and does help me if she attacks policies of those in Government because it makes them refocus their attention and begin to look at what is P1, P2 and so own.
So looking at the short press release from UPND somebody will only see bitterness and nothing about what should be paid attention to more. Hoe sad.
UPND you are just too fast, we know you have a vision for zambia but dont be very fast as if you are the only opposition in this country.we know that 2016
is for you UPND, hh forwad. voting parten will never change as long as the mindset of the people is still want to see who is going to change this. dont take people for granted. others want change of gorvornment while other want know that if we happen to change the gorvnment the new will say give us time to control thing. so this is 50/50 situation.(HH forwad 2016) and (ECL FORWAD 2016)