Chikwanda rules out lifting wage freeze

Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda says 14 months is not too long a time before the wage freeze imposed on the civil service is lifted.

Mr. Chikwanda notes by the time government finishes the discussions to come up with a properly structured salary arrangement, it will not even be noticed that 14 months has already elapsed.

He says the wage moratorium was only meant for 2014 and 2015 and that his plea to the trade unions representing the civil service is for them to realize that government’s action is also a function of resource availability.

Mr Chikwanda states that going forward the Patriotic Front government wants to correct structural imbalances where 70 percent of the national budget goes towards emoluments and related factors.

He says running government in such way is irresponsible and an abdication of responsibility to posterity.

And Mr. Chikwanda has disclosed that government has no current intentions of borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because the country’s internal and external balance is very good and government intends to maintain it that way.

He says this is why in the 2015 national budget, government has indicated that it will ensure that budget deficits do not exceed 4.5 percent.

Mr. Chikwanda was speaking to journalists this morning shortly after he opened a post budget workshop organized by the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) in collaboration with Fredrick Ebert Stiftung (FES).

Speaking earlier during the official opening of the workshop, ZCTU president Leonard Hikaumba called for genuine sacrifice to be seen to affect all who draw emoluments from the treasury including constitutional office holders.

Mr. Hikaumba says his union is concerned that the 2015 budget shows no efforts towards extending the tax base in order to provide tax relief to workers.

He has since urge government through the Ministry of Finance to take concrete steps towards economic diversification and at the same time develop alternative policy measures that will promote expansion of the tax base.