New Heritage party proposes economic measures to save SMEs from collapse

The New Heritage Party has proposed several economic measures aimed at preventing the total collapse of Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), including a tax holiday until the power situation normalizes.

Party president, Chishala Kateka noted that SMEs are the backbone of the economy but were facing almost insurmountable challenges caused by the ongoing energy crisis.

In a statement issued in Lusaka on Friday, she urged the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) and the National Pensions Scheme Authority (NAPSA) to waive penalties on late payments until the power situation stabilises.

Kateka emphasized the necessity of creating a dedicated relief fund, similar to a disaster fund, through the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) and banks.

This fund would be tailored to meet the needs of SMEs, which she identified as a critical gap in current government support.

“This is putting monies to get the nation back to work through productivity. Our appeal is for government to recognise these very harsh conditions being faced by our SMEs and to throw them a lifeline by giving them relief instead of allowing them to die,” Kateka stated.

She also claimed that the government was currently failing to pay suppliers, many of whom were SMEs, leading to diminished spending power in the economy and leaving these businesses cash-strapped.

Read More: Govt promises ‘three hours of stable power’ daily as consumers continue to groan over outages

“In addition to the drought situation, the policies by the Bank of Zambia have resulted in very high-interest rates and an economy in which liquidity has been siphoned from,” she said.

“Despite the state that SMEs find themselves in, the ZRA and NAPSA still expect their pound of flesh as they need to meet their targets, the K155 billion that the government has been bragging about raising locally,” Kateka added.

She criticized the government for its apparent disregard for SMEs, asserting that the focus seems to be solely on large corporations, which were better equipped to weather the financial storm that SMEs are facing.

“The government does not care because their focus is only on the large corporates, who are more able to weather the financial storm that the SMEs cannot,” Kateka concluded.

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