It’s a K86.8 billion for 2019.

Margret Mwanakatwe

Government has proposed to spend K86.8 billion or 28.9 percent of GDP in 2019, Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe has disclosed his budget speech.

Presenting the proposed 2019 national budget to parliament which represents a percentage increase of 21% on the 2018 budget of k71.6 billion, Mrs. Mwanakatwe says of the total budget, domestic revenues account for 64.6 percent, while 2.2 percent is support from cooperating partners.

She says the balance of 33.2% is financing from domestic and foreign sources.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe has allocated k31.2 billion for general public services, of which k23.6 billion will go towards debt obligations, with k14.2 billion allocated towards interest payments and the balance of k9.4 billion for principal loan repayments.

She says k1.2 billion has been allocated to the local government equalization fund, with k249.6 million allocated to the constituency development fund.

She adds that to support small scale farmers, k1.4 billion has been allocated to the farmer input support programme,  while the food reserve agency has been allocated k672 million for the maintenance of the national strategic food reserves.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe has proposed to spend k13.3 billion in 2019 or 15.3 percent of the budget towards education and skills training , of which k601.6 million will go towards university and college infrastructure, while k258.8 million is for the completion and rehabilitation of school infrastructure.

The minister has allocated a total of k8.1 billion or 9.3 percent of the budget to support health services delivery systems across the country.