Action Aid Questions Increase In Spending On Roads In 2020 Budget
Action Aid Zambia says while there is emphasis on re-scoping some works in the road sector from bituminous to gravel in order to reduce costs, on the contrary, there are more revenues (K10.5 billion) allocated towards road infrastructure.
Country director Nalucha Ziba stated that this is an increase of over K3 billion when compared to the allocation in the 2019 budget.
Commenting on the 2020 National budget presented by Finance Minister Dr Bwalya Ng’andu to Parliament last week, Ms. Ziba stated that Action Aid would have liked to see more expenditure towards agriculture and manufacturing, considering the greater impact the two sectors have in terms of stimulating growth.
“In the case of agriculture and manufacturing, it would have been good to see more allocations towards value addition. For instance, we are aware of government plans to investment in pineapple processing in North Western Province, fruit processing in Eastern Province and cashew nut processing in Western Province,” she stated.
On the energy sector, ActionAid said the allocation to power infrastructure of K1.1 billion in the 2020 national budget is a drop in the ocean.
“There is an allocation of K10 billion going towards road infrastructure construction, while only about K8 billion is allocated towards the energy sector. It is our concerted view that we are currently experiencing an energy crisis. Consequently, the budgetary allocation towards energy supply should have been more,” she stated.
Action Aid has, however, commended government for measures aimed at enhancing the electronic management of the tax system such as mandatory use of Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFD) for different tax types.
“This we believe minimizes human interface and thus increases the collection of tax. However, while these measures are good, we would have liked to hear more pronouncements around encouraging compliance in the use of the Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFD). Additionally, there is mention of enhancing bulk data matching with third party institutions such as PACRA, NAPSA and ZESCO. Ideally, it would have been good to hear of strategies of how these will be done,” stated Ms Ziba.
