OUT of the proposed 119.6 billion 2021 national budget, over K47 billion will be spent on debt-related repayments.
Finance minister Dr Bwalya Ng’andu announced the national budget in Parliament on Friday.
The August 2021 general elections and this year’s voter registration have been allocated with K598, 112,678 while K249, 600,000 was asset aside for Constituency Development Fund (CDF) 249,600,000
K202, 073,000 is budgeted for gratuity of members of parliament.
The 2021 budget allocations by functions of government shows that K18, 338,481,000 is for domestic debt interest and K27, 745,178, 541 for external debt (interest and principal).
Dismantling of arrears has an amount of K2, 762,080,579.
The sum of these three government functions (domestic debt interest, external debt and dismantling of arrears) is equal to K48, 845, 740, 120, an amount just for debts repayments.
The rest of the amount would go to other government functions like local government equalisation fund (K1, 164,567,612), public affairs and summit meetings (K200, 000,000), contingency (K125, 000,000), compensation fund (K100, 000,000), recreation, culture and religion (K151, 357,265), environmental protection (K955,530,142), housing and community amenities (K2,221,524,168) and water supply and sanitation (K2,172,274,286), among other sectors.
©Kalemba 2020
