Maravi

Civil society lashes out at govt’s insensitivity towards the poor

Civil society lashes out at govt’s insensitivity towards the poor
By Kombe Chimpinde
Thu 05 Aug. 2010, 14:20 CAT

CITIZEN’s Forum executive director Simon Kabanda has charged that government was not serious about the plight of the poor in the country.

Commenting on the recently hiked electricity tariffs on residential and small consumers that was not extended to the mining sector, Kabanda questioned why government would allow its citizens to be subsidizing the huge mining houses.

“We are not happy with the decision by government to exempt the mines from the current tarrif increment when they are the ones who account for the largest part of the energy consumption in the country,” he said.

“We have been told that that the Energy Regulation Board would separately negotiate the Zesco tariff increment with the mines as including them on the current tariffs would mean a breach of the initial agreements entered into with mining firms by government. If that is the case then we demand that Government must equally negotiate with vulnerable Zambians on the tariffs in compounds and markets rather than exempting high class business such as hotels in the name of Foreign Direct Investment.”

And Civil Society for Poverty Reduction executive director Patrick Mucheleka has also charged that government is more interested in protecting the interests of Foreign Direct Investment than the plight of suffering Zambians.

In an interview Mucheleka said he wondered why the government was ‘hell-bent’ on insulating the production costs of the mining firms’operation costs which were being subsidized by the few Zambians in the formal employment sector.

“Its unfortunate that once again we have experienced a Zesco tariff increment minus a corresponding increment of salaries in both the public and service sector,” Mucheleka said. “The situation will be tragic to the economic development because energy is the driver of the economy.”

He said that lack of matching increment on Zambian workers’ disposable income will just lead to increased poverty levels and stressed that instead of leveling tariffs and introducing additional taxes on mines which the country could benefit from, it was sad to see that government had allowed the mining sector to get away with huge profits .

“It appears that this government is hell-bent on protecting FDI (Foreign Direct Investment).Government has allowed the mines to get away with huge profits 80 per cent of which they externalize and on top of it, it government has excluded the mines from having the Zesco tariffs on production increased when it is the average workers that subsidize these mines,” said Mucheleka.

The Energy Regulation Board last month increased the Zesco tariffs by 25.6 on all consumer classes by the country's electricity utility company.

Zesco has clarified that the mines are not part of the increment as stipulated in their business agreements with government.

Labels: CIVIL SOCIETY, PATRICK MUCHELEKA, POVERTY, SIMON KABANDA, ZESCO

posted by MrK @ 8:14 PM