Finance Minister, Musokotwane, restates govt’s rejection of clamour for fuel subsidy return

Finance and National Planning Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane, says government will not welcome suggestions on reintroduction of subsidies.

Musokotwane said doing so would mean government not funding some of its priority sectors such as education and health.

The Minister emphasised that government currently had limited money, making it impossible to provide subsidies.

He said this on Monday in Lusaka at the National Symposium on the 2024 budget.

Musokotwane stated that government had to make choices on how available funds could be spent, especially on critical sectors such as education and health.

“I think sometimes we tend to believe that government has all the money in the world and therefore government must do a road there, government must put more subsidies on that…colleagues, money is limited as you heard, we only have K177.9 billion so the money is limited.

“It is impossible to do everything, so we have to make choices for critical areas we must fund without fail. So, when people say subsidise this and that, we are making a choice and that choice we are making… there is a possibility that if we follow your advice, some of the spending that we do today becomes impossible,” Dr Musokotwane said.

Speaking earlier, Secretary to the Treasury, Felix Nkulukusa, said: “our thinking was that the 2024 national budget should be able to respond to the challenges we have and therefore the response should be on a sustainable basis and a quick basis.”

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