Maravi

2008 budget is not pro-poor, says Saki

2008 budget is not pro-poor, says Saki
By Mwala Kalaluka
Monday January 28, 2008 [03:00]

United Liberal Party (ULP) president Sakwiba Sikota has said the 2008 budget is not pro-poor because it does not give hope to people that are eligible for social protection. In an interview immediately after the presentation of this year’s budget at Parliament last Friday, Sikota who is also Livingstone member of parliament said while there was some form of tax relief to the low income earners in the budget, the budget does not encompass the plight of the vulnerable people in rural and urban areas

He said there was need for the government to consider scaling out the social protection scheme through the formulation of a universal cash transfer scheme in order to cater for the 10 per cent of the population that are not able to fend for themselves.

“In terms of actual monies, which are going to be used in terms of social protection, I wish finance minister Ng’andu Magande he had given a better break down. It would appear that most of it is going to go in the traditional areas.

There are things such as the cash transfer scheme which I think is very important for the bottom 10 per cent in our society,” Sikota said. “These are the ones that have been forgotten in this budget.”

He said in order to make that into a universal scheme, it would cost only in the region of about K122 billion. “Sadly, I do not see the ‘One Zambia, One Nation’ motto being realised in this budget,” Sikota said.

“There are certain people who seem to be left out of the mainstream of our economy, of our society and this budget has done nothing to bridge that gap.”

He said the gap between the haves and have-nots must be bridged to reduce the loss of vital installations through vandalism.

“It is very shortsighted for the minister and the government to not look at those aspects,” Sikota said.

He also said the threshold for non-taxable pay, which has been moved from K500,000 to K600, 000, is equally very minimal.

When you consider that this is over a year and it is going into so many thousands of workers, it is in fact very little for the individual.

On the reduced Valued Added Tax (VAT), Sikota said they expected a further reduction of the tax to about 15 per cent from 17.5 per cent and not the 16 per cent which was announced.

Labels: 2008 BUDGET, POVERTY, SAKWIBA SIKOTA, ULP

posted by MrK @ 5:13 AM