By Staff Reporter
The 2024 national budget has failed to address the revenue side by failing to address the contribution from the mines for the benefit of Zambians.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Sichinga wondered why the UPND administration kept sacrificing Zambians in favour of the mining companies, instead of benefiting inhabitants from their biggest resource
“The major failure of this budget is not one but several. Number one is to give away mines because the budget fails to address the revenue side. Without mineral royalty you will not be able to get foreign currency of your own. That impacts negatively on the exchange rate as you are seeing with the Kwacha,” Sichinga said. “It seems a deliberate plan for the resources to be used as a source of revenue not to benefit Zambians.”
He said the continued giving tax holidays to the mines especially, undermines the country’s stability to generate its own wealth, saying the budget was very heavy on expenditure but has very little in terms of revenue.
Sichinga said the budget has also failed to address value addition saying things like electric batteries manufacture should be advanced by the government, as the private sector mainly responds to the government initiatives.
He said the same goes with agriculture where the government has talked about the issue of farming blocks, but that they will not grow on their own unless government aggressively drives the agenda through investment in the facilities.
“It doesn’t happen by accident. You need to have specific programmes. It’s like everything is expenditure, expenditure without looking at the revenue side,” said Sichinga. Related
