CDF TO BE INCREASED NEXT YEAR

The upscaling of the CDF comes after Government in the 2022 national budget increased it to K25.7 million from K1.6 million in 2021.

THE Constituency Development Fund (CDF) will further be upscaled in the 2023 national budget in an effort to con tinue promoting the decentralisation agenda.

This is according to the Ministry of Finance and National Development Per manent Secretary for Budget and Eco nomic Affairs, Mukuli Chikuba.

The upscaling of the CDF comes after Government in the 2022 national budget increased it to K25.7 million from K1.6 million in 2021.

Mr Chikuba emphasised that more of the revenue collected would be chan nelled to taking government services to the citizens through decentralisation.

“The 2023 budget builds on the meas ures which are in the 2022 budget such as decentralisation of Government services which is the main tool through CDF.

“You will see in the 2023 national budget that CDF will be upscaled in the medium term. Government is trying to take services down to the people and you will see more of Government revenues collected going down to the citizens,” he said yesterday in Lusaka at the 2023 na tional budget con-sultations.

Meanwhile, Mr Chikuba said Govern ment was targeting to increase revenue collection to 23 percent of the Gross Do mestic Product (GDP).

He explained that this was meant to at tain revenue levels with peer countries in the region.

“Our aim is to increase revenue collec tion to levels that subsidise in peer coun tries especially those in the region. You will notice that revenue collection within the region is sitting within the range of 22 percent of the GDP.

“In Zambia, when you take out one time factors such as dividends that come once in a while, you will find that revenue collection is still below 20 percent of the GDP. So we are trying to push this in the medium term to about 23 percent,” Mr Chikuba said.

“We want you to maintain a fine bal ance. I know that if chance was given every business entity would want to get as much tax incentives as possible but at the end of the day there are expendi-tures that Government needs to meet

“So there should be a fair balance be tween those things you are asking us to give you which are tax expenditures and take into account that the country still needs to make revenue collection,” Mr Chikuba stated.