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.

And Mrs. Mwanakatwe has proposed to introduce an exercise duty of 30 ngwee per litre on non-alcoholic beverages.

She has proposed to abolish the 20 percent casino levy and introduce a new tax regime on Casino, lottery, betting and gaming to allow for better regulation of the industry.

She has also proposed to increase the customs duty on used tyres from 25 percent or k3.00 per kg to 40 percent or k5.00 per kg in a measure intended to reduce the use of used tyres that are in most cases the cause of road traffic accidents and result in loss of lives.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe has further proposed to increase excise duty on plastic carrier bags to 30 percent from 20 percent in a measure aimed at discouraging the use of plastic carrier bags and curtail their negative impact on the environment.

With regards the mining sector, mrs mwanakatwe has proposed to increase mineral royalty rates by 1.5 percentage points at all levels of the sliding scale, introduce a fourth tier rate at 10 percent on the sliding scale mineral royalty regime which would apply when copper prices rise beyond us$7,500 per metric tonnes.

Meanwhile the minister has proposed to abolish the value added tax and replace it with a simpler and non-refundable sales tax.

She says government has undertaken a review of the various taxes currently being implemented with a view to improve their contribution and minimize revenue leakages.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe says government through the Zambia revenue authority will finalize audits of all outstanding vat refund claims and enforce all outstanding vat assessments in order to collect any unpaid taxes as the new tax is implemented.