Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:40:57 +0000
The $750m Eurobond fund should be disbursed by Parliament to avoid abuse, FDD member Brebner Changala has said.
Mr Changala said it was wrong for government to rush into borrowing when they did not lay out the intended use for the money.
“It is a shame that people are celebrating after increasing the debt for this country on matters that they did not initiate.
“Can they tell us what plans they have for the money and what the immediate benefit would be to the 13 million Zambians. This worries me because this government is going back to the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) where people would go to Paris Club and come back with celebrating that donors have confidence in Zambia without realising the dangers this was putting the country into,” said.
He added that “Initially the government intended to borrow $500million but got $750 million, can they tell us why did the increase it by $250million.
“Zambians demand to know and we ask government to tell us why the decided to put the tax payers under pressure because it would not be possible for government to realise this money in 10 years”.
He said the decision by government to rush into injecting the reposessed Zambia Railways would not yield results as it was not possible for the ZRL to make the money in 10 years time.
The government has also been challenged to reveal the identity of the Eurobond subscribers are but also warned that government should exercise caution and tell Zambians the full dangers on the money it has borrowed.
He added that government should not excite the people of Zambia by talking so highly on the Eurobond because the debt for Zambia has just increased.
Mr Changala said borrowing was very dangerous as it demanded that this money was to be paid back.
He demanded that the money be taken to parliament for approve before it could be channelled to unknown destinations.
H said government should stop from deceiving Zambians with the “don’t kubeba” by making decisions that would affect Zambians without consultation.
The senior citizen said Zambians would appreciate if government would also reveal what the interest rate is on the borrowed money.
“Zambians want to know what is the interest rate on this money and how will they repay it because this same government has failed to even introduce the windfall tax that would at least give them something.
“What plans do they have because you don’t just borrow for the sake of borrowing? How can the channel money to ZRL when they have not even started to look at pertinent issues in the railways system. This is what happens when you don’t know what to do with things you don’t fully understand.
“Credit for this bond should go to the former ruling party MMD because they initiated the programme. We only hope the PF has not come to destroy the positive economic indicators that were left by the former government. Government should not over borrow because it will put pressure on whoever would takeover to repay back the loan,” he said.
