Budget talks commence as treasury raises K6.8m from market bonds

PREPARATIONS for next year’s budget this week while government has raised close to K 6.8 billion from market bonds, Finance minister Bwalya Ngandu has announced.

In an interview, Dr Ngandu said that the provincial consultations will kick start next week where different stakeholders will be consulted so that they have their input in the budget.

He said consultation with stakeholders reveals what issues they wanted attended to in the budget.

And Dr Ngandu has bemoaned reduction in revenue collection in all sectors of the economy due to the Corona virus pandemic.

He stated that revenue collection has been a challenge while on the other hand expenditure has increased .

He however observed that revenue collection is gradually improving as some few companies have resumed operating though most of them are on limited basis.

He also disclosed that government will start paying pensioners, retirees and suppliers from the money raised from market bonds.

The minister said that government has raised close to K 6.8 billion from market bonds.

“We have raised close to K6.8 billion from bonds, the bond we issued is subscribed to by various actors in the market and we are hoping that we get external investors. After that we distribute the money accordingly, but the process of distributing the money has started. One challenge we had to meet is putting liquidity in the economy, we are trying to stimulate activity in the domestic economy,“he said.

He said that government is going to pay towards reducing arrears owed to goods and services supplied to government and those owed to pensioners and retirees.

Dr Ngandu further disclosed that besides the K 30 million empowerment to artists government will release another empowerment package for other youths.

He said that the minister of sport, youth and child development will soon announce how youths can access the funds.