Zambia says donor dependence not sustainable to tackle poverty

LUSAKA, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government said on Friday that the country's reliance on handouts from donors to support development was not sustainable for the country to tackle high poverty levels.

Minister of Finance Margaret Mwanakatwe said it was for this reason that the government has embarked on a program to enforce tax compliance so that the country could finance its development with domestic resources.

"This government recognizes that financing its development programs from debt and hand-outs from cooperating partners is not sustainable. The country has immense domestic revenue opportunities yet to be fully tapped," she said when she addressed reporters on the state of the economy for the first quarter of 2018.

According to her, relying on cooperating partners to finance development needed to come to an end, adding that the government was strengthening compliance and broadening the tax base in order to increase domestic revenue.

She noted that the current tax compliance levels of below 60 percent of the eligible taxpayers has remained a challenge. Therefore, strengthening tax administration as opposed to introducing new taxes will be the strategy, she added.

She however said that in its endeavor to improve domestic revenue collection, the government will ensure fair taxation so as not to disrupt economic activities, adding that relying on domestically generated revenues will also avoid increasing the debt overhang. Enditem