Re-introduce subsidies, says former Bank of Zambia governor Christopher Mvunga

By ADRIAN MWANZA 

GOVERNMENT should consider reintroducing subsidies on commodities like fuel to stabilise the economy which at the moment is not doing well, former Bank of Zambia governor Christopher Mvunga has said.

Mr Mvunga in an interview said the government needed to put in place measures that would enable put the economy back on track.

He said the minister of Finance and National Planning needed to halt certain projects and undertake them at a later stage to contain the situation. Mr Mvunga said there was no way the government could fulfill all the projects it had set out to undertake at a go and that it was for this reason that they had to forego certain projects. 

Mr Mvunga said that some of the projects that could be forsaken included the allocation of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) which was not of great importance.

“The minister of Finance needs to take drastic measures to ensure that the situation was put under control because if nothing was done, the situation would spiral out of control,” he said.

Mr Mvunga said the removal of subsidies should have been done gradually and not in the manner it was done.

He said the current minister of Finance who was once a lecturer was using text book policies and not practical theories to ensure that they dealt with the issues that affected the economy.

And Democratic Party (DP) President Harry Kalaba echoed the former governor’s sentiments and said the minister of Finance needed to come up with strategies that would help revamp the economy.

Mr Kalaba said it was unfortunate that the minister was not putting up measures like removing subsidies to help mitigate the hardships Zambians were experiencing.

“For me my call is just for the minister to come up with measures that will enable the mitigate things like fuel crisis which was a huge burden on Zambians,” he said.