By KALOBWE BWALYA
UNITED Party for national development (UPND) always condemned borrowing while in the opposition and their first budget has come with a significant increase in both domestic and external borrowing which is disappointing, National Democratic Congress, (NDC) Leader, Saboi Imboela has said.
Commenting on the 2022 national budget presented by the Finance Minister Dr Situmebeko Musokotwane last Friday, Ms Imboela said the UPND government has significantly increased borrowing both domestically and externally. Ms Imboela pointed out that one of the striking issues in the budget is, where is the money coming from to finance Constituency Development funds (CDF), employment of 30,000 teachers and 11,000 healthy workers.
Ms Imboela said citizens need to monitor government to ensure that this number is indeed employed or they give the actual number at the end of the year as the size of the wage bill for civil servants is already at 52% of the domestic revenue. She said although it is government obligation to employ and create jobs for the citizens, this will bring complications if not fulfilled. She further observed that the imposition of a windfall tax when copper prices are so high would have solved a lot of problems than more borrowing.
She also said a significant increase in domestic and external borrowing and an increase in mineral royalty tax is disappointing. Ms Imboela noted that a reduction in allocation towards the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) as well as education will heavily affect the production in the two sectors. She further said Health and infrastructure and Infrastructure projects should be a major concern to the citizen.
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