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Citizens First (CF) Party has accused the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) government of running the economy with propaganda.
Party Spokesperson, Frank Sichone, said Citizens First was not surprised to see a temporal gain in the Kwacha as reported last week on Friday, February 16, 2024.
Sichone in a statement issued in Lusaka on Sunday, said the party expected this to continue in the next few days because the UPND government runs what can be described as an artificial and propaganda economy.
He stated that the strength seen in the kwacha against the dollar was temporal and not sustainable.
“We say this because there’s no one in this country who can prove to us that our economy has suddenly improved and we have exports superseding our imports and our local production has increased,” Sichone said.
He noted that last year, the country saw the copper production reduce to over 20 percent and one wonders what had happened to increase the production in two months of 2024.
Sichone added that as long as the sustainable measures were not taken, all measures taken by BoZ like injecting US$50.3m in the economy, increasing monetary policy rate to squeeze liquidity in the economy or mines paying their mid month tax obligation would remain unsustainable.
The CF Spokesperson stated that this was as long as they were not supported by genuine production.
“We also know that any gradual gain in the Kwacha against major currencies is mechanically managed by those tasked to manage the currency,” he claimed.
Sichone said that this was to make people beleive that the economy was doing better when infact not.
He called on Zambians not to panic as this measure was temporal and shall pass.
“The CF party believes that government can focus on long term solutions in managing our economy than implementing short term propaganda measures to excite citizens,” Sichone stated.
He noted that long term measures included industrialisation that would help to increase productivity and exports.
Sichone emphasized the need to tax the mines correctly by reverting to the six percent or more mineral loyalty taxation system where this was also non tax deductible.
“Re-negotiating the debt repayment plan and also to increase exports in order for the nation to have good inflow of forex,” he said.
Sichone also called on the business community not to panic as they do business as measures implemented by government were only temporal and not sustainable.
He advised the Bank of Zambia to help government implement long term measures as opposed to short term tools they were using to temporarily or artificially manage the exchange rate.
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