Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Patrick Nshindano
The Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) has called for the balancing of the budget if the Country is to address the current and future social and economic challenges.
And the organization has encouraged government to allocate not less than 10 percent to the agriculture sector in the 2016 budget consider that the sector remains one of the key sectors in alleviating poverty in the country.
CSPR Executive Director Patrick Nshindano has told QFM News in an interview that his organisation anticipates that the 2016 national budget will seek to respond and address the current economic shocks caused by the falling copper prices on the international market, power deficit and the volatility of the kwacha.
Mr. Nshindano says government should however; ensure that the budget guards against the temptation and pressure of financing only short term challenges, by looking at the long term measures if the country is to maintain a predictable economic growth while maintaining fiscal discipline.
Mr. Nshindano says CSPR expects that the 2016 national budget will ensure increased domestic revenue to sustainably finance poverty reduction programmes and promote national development through increased equity in revenue collection and expenditure.
He adds that the budget must also demonstrate and show clear links between the policy pronouncements made by President Edgar Lungu and the finances available to actualize the speech, as failure to show such linkages will only mean that the speech was mere rhetoric.
He says his organization is therefore looking forward to a budget that is linked to the Presidential speech and the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).
And the CSPR Executive Director has called on government to avoid cutting resources to the social sectors such as agriculture, health, education, social protection, water and sanitation, as these are key sectors in poverty reduction.
Mr. Nshindano was also quick to mention that government should consider increasing allocations to the tourism and agriculture sectors as the jobs provided in these sectors are sustainable as compared to those in the mining sector.