MoF in April released K5.77 billion for debt service, govt operations

Margret Mwanakatwe

A total of K5.77 billion was released by the Treasury in April 2018 to finance development programmes and Government operations.

Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe says out of that amount, K2.14 billion went towards capital and other key developmental programmes, K1.60 billion was released for debt service, K816.6 million for support to grant-aided-institutions, and K2.19 billion for personal emoluments.

Ms Mwanakatwe says the Public Service Pensions Fund received K91.76 million for retiree pension benefits, K24 million was released to settle salary arrears for TAZARA employees while the Social Cash Transfer Programme got K45.8 million.

She says the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) was allocated K245.4 million to settle payments to various creditors for supplies of fertilizer for the 2017/18 farming season while the Food Reserve Agency was given K20 million.

Ms Mwanakatwe discloses that the Ministry of Health received K140 million for the procurement of drugs and medical supplies.

She adds that from the total of K816.6 million released for grants to different sectors in various institutions in across the country, the Treasury also disbursed K60.8 million to meet operational costs for health facilities.

The Finance Minister says in the month under review, K62 million was released as Constituency Development Fund [CDF] to support development projects in various constituencies across the country while K89.9 million was disbursed towards the Local Government Equalisation Fund to facilitate the operations of local authorities.

She further states that of the total funding for the month of April 2018, the road sector received K353.68 million; being funds from the Road Tolls – Fuel Levy – and Road User Charges.

This is contained in a statement issued to QTV News by Ministry of Finance Head of Public Relations Chileshe Kandeta.