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About K26.3 billion has been collected by government in the first quarter of 2023, as external debt swells to US$13.96 billion.
This is as announced by the Finance and National Planning Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane, at the 2023 first quarter budget performance in Lusaka on Tuesday.
Musokotwane said this represented a 2.6 percent above the targeted revenue collection for the quarter.
“This was largely due to favourable performance in value Added Tax (VAT) and exceptional revenue collected from Zambia Information Communication and Technology Authority (ZICTA) from the sale of bandwidth spectrum,” he said.
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He also pointed out that non-tax revenue collections amounted to K4.2 billion against a target of K3.83 billion. The collections from ZICTA largely accounted for this outcome.
In terms of spending, Musokotwane said, government released K38.5 billion to implement various projects and programmes, against a target of K37.8 billion.
On Zambia’s debt position, Musokotwane said central government external debt amounted to US$13.96 billion from US$13.36 billion in 2022.
He attributed the increase to disbursements from multilateral creditors.
“During our January engagement, I presented the debt position as at end-September 2022, with the central government external debt estimated at US$13.36 billion,” he said.
On the domestic debt front, the minister said Zambia’s stock of government securities increased slightly to K211.7 billion as at end-March 2023 from K210 billion at end 2022.
“In the interest of transparency, the Ministry of Finance and National Planning continues to publish this information in our quarterly debt bulletins, which can be accessed on the Ministerial website,” Musokotwane said.
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