Government has unveiled a K12 trillion for the year 2007 of which, 72 percent is to be financed domestically while the remaining 28 percent will be from external financing.
The K12.042.4 billion budget under the theme “from stability to improved service
delivery” represents about 26.6 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
projected at K45, 282 billion in 2007.
Of the total budget, K8, 668.1 billion will be financed by domestic resources while
the balance of K3, 374 billion will be from external sources.
The balance of K43.4 billion or 4.5 percent will constitute domestic borrowing.
Unveiling the 2007 national budget, Finance and National planning Minister Ngandu
Magande said the country having achieved macroeconomic stability and positive
economic growth, that it was paramount that the achievements are translated into
improved standards of living for the people.
He said to achieve improved standards of living for the people of Zambia, that there
is need for improved service delivery.
Mr. Magande said K9, 053.3 billion or 75.2 percent will be spent on current
expenditures while K2, 117.5 billion or 18.1 percent will go towards capital
expenditures.
The total allocation towards capital expenditures, K1, 086 billion will be financed
from the domestic resources while K1, 091.5 billion will be financed from external
sources.
Of the total amount on domestically financed expenditure, K216 billion has been
allocated for Financial Restructuring and K111.1 billion for enterprise development
funds
Government is to spend K3,5 trillion of 29 percent of the budget for personal
emoluments and K3,042 .5 billion of 25.3 percent of the budget for recurrent
departmental charges.
A further K2,259.5 billion or 18.8 percent of the budget has been provided for
Grants and other payments.
The Minister said government would spend K102.7 trillion of public service reform,
K266.0 billion on the pensions fund , K197.0 billion on the Zambia Revenue Authority
while the education and health will receive K436.6 billion and K326.6 billion
respectively.
Government is also to spend a total of K811.6 billion of which K656.6 will go
towards domestic debt interest , K129.3 to foreign debt and a further k25.8 billion
to constitutional posts.
The Finance Minister further stated that Government proposes to allocate K4, 022.9
billion or 33.4 percent of the budget for General Public Services, which is a
decline of 7.5 percentage points from the 2006 budget of 40.9 percent.
He said the measure is line with the Government’s policy to direct more resources to
poverty reduction programmes.
Of the total amount 63.6 percent has been provided for general government services,
17.3 percent for centralised government services and the remainder to cater for
executive and legislative government functions.
Mr. Magande said government has provided has provided K2,557.3 billion or 21.4
percent of the budget for general government services.
” A key element of this function is debt and investments management whose allocation
is K1,267.3 billion or 11 percent”, he said.
Of this amount, K656.6 billion will cater for interest payments on Treasury bills
and bonds and K449.5 billion is for arrears owed to suppliers of goods and services,
road contractors and utility providers.ÂÂ
An amount of K129.3 billion or 1.1 percent of the budget compared to K378 billion or
3.7 percent of the budget in 2006 will go towards payment of external debt.
He said the figure shows a significant reduction from the previous years and is
indeed a true reflection of the positive effects of debt relief received under the
HIPC initiatives and MDRI.
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In order to speed up the implementation of the decentralization policy through
rationalisation of expenditure between central Government and local Government and
transfer of resources from Central Government to local authorities, K102.7 billion
has been provided in this year’s budget.
“This includes a recurrent grant amount of K50 billion, K25 billion for
restructuring grant, K17.7 billion for grants in lieu of rates and K10 billion for
conditional capital grants,” he said
On economic affairs, Government has proposed to spend a total of K2.236.2 billion on
among other sectors agriculture, transport , fuel and energy , mining and
communication s.
He said government will spend K2.5 on strategic food reserves K205 billion is for
the Strategic Food Reserve Programme to facilitate purchase of maize and other
crops.
K150 billion has been set aside for the Fertilizer Support Programme for the
2007/2008 agricultural season, while K37 will go towards areas of intervention in
the Irrigation Development.
The Finance Minister further said K20 billion for Agriculture Infrastructure
Development and K47.5 billion for Livestock Development while provisions have been
made of K40 billion for agriculture services and technological development and K25.7
billion for fisheries development.
On Transport, government has allocate K920 billion or 7.6 percent of the budget for
raod infrastructure development, rehabilitation and maintenance through out the
country.
In addition, the Government proposes to spend K11.4 billion for the rehabilitation
of airports, which includes K8.5 billion for the extension of the runway at
Livingstone International Airport and a further amount of K8.7 billion has been set
aside for construction of the Chipata-Mchinji railway.
on education, Government has allocated K1,808.4 billion or 15 percent of the
budgetto among other programmes the recruitment of an additional 4,000 teachers,
rehabilitation and construction of basic schools and rural teachers’ housing as well
as purchase of school requisites.
The Minister said Government would also spend K1,294 billion or 10.8 percent of
the budget in the health sector whose programmes will include the recruitment of
1,900 front line medical personnel to help reduce the shortage of health workers and
enhance service delivery
On housing government will spend a total of K787.4 billion or 6.5 percent of the
budget on water supply and sanitation programmes, which will include provision of
boreholes, water wells in rural, urban and peri-urban areas.
In addition, K23.1 billion has been allocated for housing development while K15.3
billion has been allocated to community development.
On Public Order and Safety, Government has proposed to spend K451.9 billion or 3.8
percent of the budget, that will include the provision of accommodation for the
police service.
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I have been following the pre-budget comments from the opposition parties, urging the Finance Minister what to consider in his budget.However, I’m abit disappointed by thier silence post-budget.Personally, I rely on their comments as they would not be biased but fair, in some instances, representing cries from grass roots.
I want to hear their views, and if credit should be given where its due, it must be given.