Socialist Party leader Fred M’membe says it is mischievous for government to claim that all benchmarks set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been met when it is clear that Zambia may not access the second tranche of US$188 million.
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Dr M’membe has said the IMF had clearly set out its conditions for the Fund to progress with the disbursement of US$188 million which was subject to financing assurances from debt restructuring.
Dr Mmembe is wondering how government is claiming that all benchmarks had been met when there were outstanding conditions set out in the IMF statement.
“How can one be confident of the outcome when there are preconditions that have still not been met? While we support the speedy conclusion of debt restructuring, we are not confident because the Minister of Finance has made numerous statements and given timelines in which they were expected to conclude the issue – timelines that have come and gone. How can one be confident when they keep changing timelines,” Dr Mmembe said.
Dr Mmembe said over the past two years, the country had not been servicing its debt and wondered where the savings were going.
“Once debt restructuring is concluded we will have to start paying the currently suspended debt, meaning we will have less money than we have had in the past two years. Will this solve our economic challenges? The answer is a categorical NO,” Dr M’membe said.
He said the real solution to Zambia’s debt was the formulation of an internal economic recovery plan focusing on industralisation, expanding existing manufacturing capacities and introducing new sound agriculture policy.
Dr M’membe proposed the reviewing of tax waivers provided to the mining and other sectors as well as formulating reforms that would attract investment in the energy sector among other things.
Dr Mmembe said what was needed was to adopt a non-favourite child policy; to treat all creditors the same and engage with each credit category on a bilateral basis, in addition to the G20 Common Framework.
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