By Staff Reporter
Zambians have been shortchanged and should make appropriate choices in the next five years, says Democratic Party (DP) leader Harry Kalaba.
And Kalaba said even if the UPND government were desperate to borrow, they should have gone to “all weather friend” China, as the conditions they have gotten from the $1.4 billion IMF deal are not even known.
Speaking with Daily Revelation on the fuel pump prices, which will be followed by electricity price hikes as some of the conditionalities to access $1.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kalaba said Zambians should start making appropriate choices, saying he was not sure whether they will start doing so starting with the upcoming Kabwata by-elections, but that “for now what we know is that fuel has been increased and we are telling people the consequences of an increment in fuel so that they can make informed decisions when they go to the by-election in January.”
“Things are going to get expensive? So what can I tell them? They are seeing for themselves and I am sure they will make the appropriate choices in the next five years to do the right thing, because right now, honestly the people have been shot changed,” Kalaba said.
He demanded that President Hichilema should apply the “Y-C formula” he was writing on the board in order to reduce the price of fuel.
“And we thought that President Hakainde Hichilema told us that he had a method of reducing fuel. You remember that thing he was writing on the board Y-C= what. Let him apply that method. We want to see that method applied so that the fuel can go down. They didn’t tell us we are going to borrow from the IMF. So drop it,” Kalaba said.
He questioned the UPND government’s wisdom in giving tax holidays to the mines, while milking Zambians dry.
“That is what I am saying that if indeed it was for stability purposes (in the mines), they should have allowed the mines first of all to operate even for a period of one year without giving them any tax holiday so that they observe how the mining regime was going to behave,” Kalaba’s said. “Secondly, if indeed they wanted to see how the mines were going to work, you know very well that the reason why Zambia has been losing money is as a result of limited concentration on these exports in the mining sector. All that government needed to do was to set up a body like NEMACO, so that all exports are going through that body so that we notice the quantum of what is being exported.
“Because right now we are relying on Lumwana, Kansanshi, Kalumbila to tell us what they are mining and we can’t know exactly. We don’t have an institutional framework to deal with such things.”
Kalaba insisted that there was money in this country, more than the $1.4 billion the government was getting from IMF.
“But they are telling us that we are removing subsidies on fuel so that they can channel money to paying retirees. It’s not true. Then why did we give the tax holidays to the mines? Why did we do that? Why are we giving tax holidays when we are in need of resources?” Kalaba said. “I think for me it’s lack of ingenuity on the part of the UPND government. They are doing the same thing that the PF was doing. Because if you look at the IMF loan they have gotten, even the PF was in the process of getting that IMF loan the only was that PF was scared of the elections because they didn’t want to increase the price of fuel.”
He wondered what made the UPND would think that borrowing money from IMF was the quickest fix to the problem.
“You go and borrow $1.4 billion when you are losing $10 billion in your revenue base. Rwanda as a country doesn’t borrow from the IMF. You also know that countries like Tanzania have been very hesitant in borrowing money,” said Kalaba. “The government should have even looked to China then because China has been an all weather friend of Zambia, instead of rushing for these kind of loans that they are rushing for, because we don’t even know the conditions surrounding those loans.”
More @ www.dailyrevelationzambia.com
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