Maravi

Magande gives tips to Musokotwane

Magande gives tips to Musokotwane
Written by Allan Mulenga, Masuzyo Chakwe, Kabanda Chulu and Fridah Zinyama
Friday, January 30, 2009 1:03:52 PM

FORMER finance minister Ng’andu Magande has urged the government to come up with a budget that will outline measures of addressing the global economic recession.
And Irish Ambassador to Zambia Bill Nolan has said Zambia needs to account for every dollar that goes into the national budget.

Meanwhile, some mothers in Lusaka have urged finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane to continue with value added tax (VAT) exemption on instant baby formula and extend it to other baby products, which are expensive.

Giving his expectations of the budget, which will be presented by Dr Musokotwane in Parliament today, Magande said he expects a budget that will address the current problems affecting Zambians.

"Although it is the responsibility of the government to come up with the budget, I hope the budget that will be delivered in Parliament will provide answers to the current problems. At least to propose measures on the global economic recession," Magande said.

And Ambassador Nolan said Zambia's budget was a matter for the Zambian government and that going by what President Rupiah Banda said in Parliament last week, he wanted to ensure that macroeconomic stability was maintained.

"It will have to be a tight budget in a number of areas because of the economic slowdown and he [President Banda] identified a number of priorities and it might be that some capital expenditure will have to be put on hold," he said.

Ambassador Nolan said from the donors' point of view, they were hoping that the targets in the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) in areas like health and education, water and sanitation could be adhered to as far as possible.

Ambassador Nolan said the 2009 budget would have to be tight in a number of areas because of the global economic slowdown.

"We hope the money will be made available for these but I think it ought to be, because again as the President pointed out if you look at the budget outturn over the last number of years, there was really quite unacceptable level of not spending all the money that was actually not allocated to a number of ministries. So there is a huge area to improve efficiency there especially that we will be entering tough years possibly for all countries and not only just Zambia," Ambassador Nolan said.

"There will be less money available including less money to donors, all our economies in Europe are being badly hit with the economic slowdown, we are going to have to struggle over a couple of years to ensure that donor budget increases that we were hoping for will be maintained but none of us European donors can give you that guarantee at the moment.

"So it will be a question of making maximum use of every dollar that goes into the budget, value for money, tight control and accountability of money and all of that so that even if we have less money to fund the FNDP, to fund the sort of expansions and improve other services like education, there won't be less money available for that purpose."

He said the government had to make sure all that money was well used and accounted for.

And some mothers in Lusaka stated that all baby products should be VAT free since affordability of products would also result in reduction in infant mortality rates.

Salome Mwanza of Kabulonga said VAT exemption should continue because infant formula had become more of a luxury than a necessity.

"Infant formula must be readily available because sometimes after giving birth, some mothers do not have enough milk, hence experiencing difficulties with breastfeeding their babies," Mwanza said. "But VAT exemption must be extended to all baby products such as porridge, feeding bottles and other things because they are all expensive."

Another mother, Bwalya Mulenga of Chainama said the development had helped many mothers especially that some babies were just on instant formula.

"We have a situation where some mothers are HIV positive and breastfeeding is the only option and this has helped in many ways and government should consider maintaining the exemption and extend it further to include other baby products," Mulenga said.

Everinah Phiri of Makeni said the exemption of VAT on infant formula had made the product easily available to the people.

Chileya Banda of Arakan Barracks said the exemption of VAT on infant formula had allowed working mothers to afford the product since many of them preferred to bottle-feed their babies.

"These products are very expensive and in some cases those who cannot afford resort to feeding their babies with raw milk from the cow or the over-processed ones that are cheap and readily available," Banda said.

And the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) urged the government to treat the rising prices of agricultural inputs as an emergency that must be mitigated with incentives to the sector to increase production.

The ZNFU stated that many countries were reversing bad measures against agriculture and putting in place deliberate positive policies to increase production.

"Lack of access to credit and higher prices of fertilisers have increased potential for Zambia to experience food crises, hence this situation must be treated as an emergency with all possible incentives to boost agriculture production," ZNFU stated.

The National Food and Nutrition Commission (NFNC) stated that VAT exemption on instant milk formula was a positive development.

"The exemption has given us options as much as we encourage breastfeeding, the reduction in the cost of the product has provided choices to people especially HIV/AIDS breastfeeding mothers and for those young babies who lose their mothers after birth," NFNC stated.

During the 2008 budget, Magande announced that infant formula was a major nutritional supplement for babies, hence the decision to exempt it from VAT, a measure that resulted in revenue loss of K2.1 billion.

Currently, 400 grams of Nestle Lactogen 1 and 2 costs in different stores between K24,980 per tin and K K26,200 per tin from the previous prices of above K30,000 before VAT exempted.

However, baby cereals, baby foods, feeding bottles, baby porridge, bibs, diapers, among other things are still beyond the reach of many ordinary mothers.

Labels: BILL NOLAN, GREAT DEPRESSION II, INFLATION, MAGANDE, SITUMBEKO MUSOKOTWANE

posted by MrK @ 3:38 AM