By Daily Revelation Reporter
Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) says it expects today’s budget to take into account the high cost of living that Zambians are complaining about daily.
And TIZ has cautioned the government against significantly increasing the allocation towards Constituency Development Fund (CDF), before the previous one is accounted for.
Giving its expectations in today’s budget, organization advocacy policy and research manager Bright Chizonde, Chizonde stated that TIZ expects to see a budget crafted around a relevant theme which takes into account the current macroeconomic and social economic context.
“With Zambians complaining daily about the rising cost of living, we expect the 2024 National Budget theme to resonate with this critical issue in order to accord government the opportunity to remedy the situation,” he stated.
And Chizonde stated that while TIZ would like to see increased allocations in future budgets, there is need for comprehensive audits to establish the value for the money before increasing its allocation.
“The CDF allocation was increased from K4 billion in 2022 to K4.4 billion in 2023. While we support the CDF programme, and we would like to see increased allocations in future budgets, there is need for comprehensive audits to establish the value for money before increasing its allocation,” Chizonde stated.
Chizonde disclosed that TIZ was aware of escalating cases of abuse of CDF funds and in such instances, it has submitted them to relevant law enforcement agencies for further investigations.
“We therefore, expect the government to maintain the CDF allocation pending these audits and investigations in order to safeguard public funds,” he stated.
Chizonde stated that in terms of the macroeconomic objectives, TIZ is looking forward to a higher economic growth target in line with Zambia’s long term aspirations under the vision 2030.
“We should therefore, seek to attain a real GDP growth rate of at least 5.0 percent in 2024,” he stated. “TIZ also expects that the government will maintain or reduce the domestic resource mobilization target, which was set at 20.9 of GDP in 2023. This is aimed at reducing the tax burden as a measure to alleviate the rising cost of living, especially among the working class.”
Chizonde stated that the 2024 budget should avoid the error of being too ambitious on the expenditure side, as this would exert pressure on the resource envelope.
He added that while TIZ expected the government to increase the budget allocations towards the social sectors and law enforcement agencies, as observed in the 2023 and 2022 national budgets, it expects a minimum reduction in the total budget.
“The reduction in the total budget from 172.99 billion in 2022 to K167.3 billion in 2023 coupled with increased allocations to the social sectors was commendable,” Chizonde stated.
He also stated that the government should reduce personal tax income.
Chizonde stated that this should be done through reducing the PAYE tax rates by at least 2.5 across all the tax bands, in order to alleviate the impact of the rising cost of living on the entire workforce.
He stated that it would also be prudent to set proper policy direction in the agriculture sector in order to reduce the maize cost and increase the production of other crops, saying this is critical for controlling inflation in the short and medium term.
