Govt’s economic stewardship extremely challenging – USAID
… says in a very challenging environment, Government’s careful management of the economic is necessary to bring Zambia out of debt distress and put it on the path for long term sustainable growth
By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
GOVERNMENT’S careful stewardship of the economy has been extremely challenging, but necessary to bring Zambia out of debt distress and on the path for long term sustainable growth, USAID Mission Director, Peter Wiebler has said.
Mr Wiebler commended Government for not only the development of its current national budget, but on the overall careful management of the economy despite the many fiscal challenges, made harder by the drought and electricity crisis.
He recognised that developing a budget and maintaining fiscal discipline had been hard, especially during this time of drought and load shedding.
He was speaking at the Eastern Province Tax Dialogue Forum and Post-Budget Symposium.
“Your careful stewardship of the economy has been extremely challenging but necessary to bring Zambia out of debt distress and on the path for long term sustainable growth.
“We are proud to partner with you in this work – through USAID’s Revenue for Growth programme as well as our Good Financial Governance programme, which we co-fund with Germany and the European Union. We affirm our support to the reforms undertaken in partnership with the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” Mr Wiebler said.
To help reduce the intensity of the fiscal crisis, he pointed out that USAID supported Zambia providing K520 million in food and emergency assistance for food aid and drought response assistance.
He said this assistance was part of more than K1.7 billion the US government had pledged to Zambia to address the current drought and strengthen food security, among others.
At the same function, Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) Commissioner-General, Dingani Banda said the contribution of tax revenue to the national budget had progressively increased over the recent years.
Mr Banda noted this was from a share of 49 percent of the national budget in 2021, to 70.5 percent in 2024, a development he said was testament to the increasing reliance on domestic revenue for Government expenditure, away from borrowing and donor dependency.
“This year, ZRA is expected to collect K125.3 billion, compared to a target of k103.1 billion last year. Undoubtedly, the authority has an enormous task ahead, but we are confident that we will rise to the occasion and exceed the target.
“Strengthening collaboration with stakeholders such as the Zambia Association of Manufacturers, Zambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Zambia Chamber for Small and Medium Business Associations, is now our anchor of hope for success in 2024,” he said.
