By JOHN SAKALA
The opposition UPND in Chingola is calling on Zambians to reject2019 National Budget announced in parliament by Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe.
UNPD Chingola Information and Public Secretary (IPS) Maybin Sichimba said the 2019 budget offers no tax relief to employees in the country.
Mr Sichimba said the budget had more taxes than money in people’s pockets as per the PF campaign slogan.
“The Minister of Finance offered no tax relief to the already suffering workers exposing them to huge PAYE amounting to K11.4 billion which they will pay through the nose to meet the luxury life styles of the rich few.
“How does the PF government expect us to support the budget that is asking the already poorly paid workers to contribute K11.4billion to the national budget which is far more than corporate tax at K7.5 billion?” he said.
He said the budget is unfair and unacceptable because besides the tax on income, there are a lot of other fees and fines which people are going to start paying under non-tax revenue which the minister did not even explain for the common man in the street to understand.
“UPND is expecting Government to provide a service and not to make profits as the case seem to be under the Lungu led government. How can we allow Government to be in the business of reaping profit from poor Zambians? We wonder whether this is the pro-poor government the PF promised the people of Zambia.
“We are also not happy with the fact that, the 2019 national budget will mostly go for paying off “Kaloba.” Most of the money in the budget will go towards paying both external and internal debt amounting to a total figure of K25.6 billion,” he said.
He said critical agencies such as the Ministries of Health and Education have been allocated with K8 billion and K13.2 billion respectively as compared to K25.6 billion for debt service thus affecting service delivery in areas such as pension, social cash transfer, food security pack and public welfare.
Mr Sichimba said the other worrying reason is that the 2019 national budget has shown that a huge amount of about K2.9 billion has been allocated for public order and safety yet the country is not at war.
“Is there something we don’t know that the PF government is scared of for them to plan to spend more on public order? Does it mean this government is scared of its own people?
“These are some of the so many question that we would like the s government through the Minister of Finance to answer. Otherwise we are not ready to support the national budget in its current proposed form especially that the police have become highly unprofessional and giving them more than K 2 billion for weapons will just worsen the situation,” said.
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