Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Opposition Patriots for Economic Progress leader, Sean Tembo has described as an economic blunder, the decision by the UPND administration to employ more than 40,000 civil servants, at a time when the country has the largest fiscal deficit in history.
Mr. Tembo has explained that a fiscal deficit means that the country’s expenditure is higher than its revenue.
He also points out that in economics, the term that employment creation is a key accelerator of economic growth, does not mean government recruitment as the UPND administration has done but rather the private sector employment creation.
The opposition leader says at the time when the UPND administration is either expected to cut expenditure or increase the revenue, it is doing the opposite.
Meanwhile Mr. Tembo says giving the mines a de facto tax holiday at a time that copper prices are at record highs of approximately 11,000 dollars per metric tons, is a poor decision on the part of UPND administration.
Mr. Tembo says whether this decision was done in order to pay back the money which the mines funded UPND during its 23 years in opposition or it was just innocent incompetence remains a matter of speculation.
Mr. Tembo notes that the mines have been able to operate and make a profit when copper prices were at 3,500 dollars which means they are now making supernormal profits with copper prices at 11,000 dollars and yet the nation is not benefiting in any way from this windfall.