Maravi

2009 budget is a raw deal for women, says Munyinda

2009 budget is a raw deal for women, says Munyinda
Written by Masuzyo Chakwe
Monday, February 09, 2009 2:49:48 AM

NGOCC board chairperson Marian Munyinda yesterday said the 2009 national budget has revealed a raw deal for the women of Zambia.

Giving the women movement's analysis of the 2009 budget, Munyinda said the formulation and implementation of the national budget continues to be gender-blind and gender-insensitive.

"It was our submission as NGOCC that the 2009 national budget in responding to the marginalised in society and the poor must have clear and gender-sensitive targets unfortunately this is not the case," she said.

Munyinda observed that on Pay As You Earn (PAYE), there was no real change as the burden had been shifted by having the higher income earners being subsidised by the lower income earners.

Munyinda said in addition, the increment from K600, 000 to K700, 000 offers no significant burden reduction on the lower income earners especially that the JCTR monthly food basket was pegged at K1, 4 million.

She said this increase failed to even meet their own food basket by Central Statistics Office (CSO), which was pegged at K1 million.

On Value Added Tax, Munyinda said NGOCC submitted that this band be reduced from 16 per cent to 10 per cent.

"However, silence on this matter in the minister's speech is an indication that it has been maintained at 16 per cent. The government must understand that VAT is a major contributing factor to the high cost of living and the implication of not reducing this will result in many people, in particular women, not meeting their basic needs, hence infringing the basic human rights of the dignity of the human being," she said.

Munyinda said the 37 per cent increment in this year's allocation to the agriculture sector, though at a glance may seem to be an increment, was not in real terms.

Munyinda said this was considering that the budget to this sector was drastically reduced by 26.6 per cent in 2008.

"Further, impacting negatively on this is the inflation rate which stands at 14.6 per cent. In analysis this implies that there is a reverse growth of -4 per cent in this sector. The 2009 budget has provided K435 billion as compared to K185 billion in 2008 budget," she said.

She said NGOCC's concern was the failure by the Fertiliser Support Programme to reach the targeted citizens, which she said had been acknowledged in the budget speech.

However, Munyinda noted government's omission to indicate on how they would deal with the challenges in the FSP.

She recommended that the government implement a gender-sensitive support programme which would take into account the different needs of women and men in the agriculture sector.

On health, Munyinda said the 12.9 per cent increment to this sector was actually not an increment in real terms when taking into account the inflation rate at 14 per cent which resulted in a -1 per cent reverse increment.

Munyinda said the committee on estimates in debating and making changes to the national budget must ensure that each proceeding budget must have real growth as opposed inflationary increment in the budget.

Labels: 2009 BUDGET, MARIAN MUNYINDA, NGOCC

posted by MrK @ 2:49 AM