It is a hopeless beggar’s budget
Dear Editor,
TECHNICALLY it’s not a budget, it’s a wish list be- cause it’s based on us borrowing almost 50 percent to finance it.
The UPND government is playing to the gallery and has also failed to show how the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) will earn it nor is it anywhere near our “depleted” reserves nor our non existent coffers as President Hakainde Hichilema proclaimed.
In paragraph (25, 144) the Minister indicates that “the lev- el of our fiscal deficit and debt is unsustainable” as we stand at $14.71 billion external debt yet he goes ahead to present a $10 billion (K173 billion) budget to be financed grossly through more borrowing from the IMF as indi- cated in paragraph (178).
What is disheartening is that the total revenue target from ZRA is a paltry K96.8 billion for 2021 so the K81.2 billion will be borrowed! That’s almost half the budget.
This budget is a dangerous wish list that will not only plunge our country into deeper debt but auction our country to the slave whims of the IMF.
It’s time we became responsi- ble and earned our own money from our abundant resources. STOP this incessant borrowing! It is keeping us in poverty.
The wise make a budget based on your revenue capacity, not our neighbour’s pocket, it’s that simple.
As Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), we will soon make available a budget that can navigate us across these potholes. The 2022 UPND budget is a dan- gerous wish list meant to excite the gullible yet its ramifications are worse than where the PF has left us.
Wherever we want to go, our feet shall take us there.
KASONDE MWENDA C, Economic Freedom Fighters President
