ZAMBIA.
What is there to celebrate about government employment?
That’s what a government ought to do.
Responsible governments do so but do not just stop there, they also create an enabling environment for economic growth driven by the private sector.
This is usually the measure of economic progress.
Not employment to essential public medical personnel…
The repo-effect is usually more required by government in terms of expenditure.
However, the country’s budget estimates and revenue with regards to resource mobilization through taxes if you like is a mismatch.
It therefore means that the Government has to find several means and ways of generating revenue for government expenditure programmes.
This is where every administration that comes to power finds itself in financial problems to execute policies and promises for the masses to see..
Take the case of PF, when it came to power and wanted to focus on infrastructure?
They instead went to the private markets to borrow money for capital projects.
Hence the Euro-bond.
Zambia manages to mobilize resources mostly through taxation up to 90%.
10% is borrowed.
I don’t have to go into the meat grit of what that means to the private sector and citizens because they get crowded out especially the SMEs from accessing finance or capital.
This is because banks prefer to lend to government, which is percieved as risk free because governments can print money in the event that they default.
Anyway, government employment simply means more burden to the treasury.
Now, while this has been happening, there’s one thing Zambians regardless of the political divide have not done which is to agree on the mainstay of the economy which is the mining sector contribution.
This is what we should focus on be it whether one is UPND, PF, MMD or any other political party member or supporter.
Zambia is in economic qungmire due to the legacy of the mines and manner of it’s privatization.
Unfortunately, no one is seeing the need to correct the problem.
Instead, current leaders are even rewarding mines ten year tax holidays.
Zambia is among countries in the world with the highest number of taxes and by percentage form in VAT, Excise Duty and PAYE at 37.5% for high income earners.
Recurrent expenditure in government gobbles over 60% of revenue.
This is the sad reality of Zambians that most ignorant people and other praise singers prefer to politicizing rather than looking at such matters with a sense of duty and patriotism.
Zambia is a ‘Garden of Eden’ that is in a total decay, because of high taxes that can’t spur the economy, when mines are contributing literally nothing to the treasury, while declaring huge profits in billions of dollars to their shareholders abroad.
What is free education when the quality of it is ‘taka taka’?
Government is unable to construct roads using taxes but now has to use pension funds in the name of PPP.
Subsidy is now an impossible thing to attain in the area of energy such as electricity and fuel aswell as mealie meal.
This is despite Zambia being a Copper, Cobalt, Uraniam, Magnese and other precious minerals.
Why should a nation endowed with so much riches in terms of minerals both in the ground and above be at the same time the most poorest in the world?
What has gone wrong?
What has happened to Zambians to fail to correct things and develop their country?
This is what should inform citizens desires regardless of the political divide to see Zambia develop.
It can only do so when the country buries the hatchet and collectively wise up.
Biganj!