Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe has unveiled a K86.8 billion 2019 National Budget further announcing that Zambia will introduce new mining duties and increase royalties.

The Finance Minister says this will help bring down mounting debt and cut its fiscal deficit.

Presenting the 2019 to parliament, Mrs. Mwanakatwe further announced the introduction of a fourth tier rate at 10 percent on the sliding scale mineral royalty regime which will apply when copper prices rise beyond US$7,500 per metric tonne.

She further announced that go government has made mineral royalty tax nondeductible for income tax purposes.

She says in the financial year running from 1st January 2019 to December 31st 2019, government will introduce an import duty at the rate of 5 percent on copper and cobalt concentrates.

The Finance Minister has also introduced an export duty on precious metals including gold, precious stones and gemstones at the rate of 15 percent.

Lastly for the mining sector, Mrs. Mwanakatwe has lifted the suspension of the export duty on manganese ores and concentrates which was put in place in 2012 and increase this duty to 15 percent from 10 percent.

“Sir, to support the expenditure measures that I have outlined, total resources for 2019 are projected at K86.8 billion. Of this amount, domestic revenues account for 64.6 percent, while 2.2 percent is support from cooperating partners. The balance of 33.2 percent is financing from domestic and foreign sources.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe has also allocated K5.4 billion to the agriculture sector including fisheries and livestock out of which K672 million will go to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).

“Mr. Speaker, I have allocated a total of K6.5 billion to the road infrastructure. This will cater for, among others, the continuation of the Link Zambia 8,000 Project and the rehabilitation and upgrading of feeder roads across the country through the Rural Roads Connectivity Programme,” she announced.

She has further promised to spend K13.3 billion in 2019 or 15.3 percent of the budget for the education sector.

She says within this amount, she has allocated K601.6 million for university and college infrastructure, while K258.8 million is for the completion and rehabilitation of school infrastructure across the country.

“Sir, I have allocated a total of K8.1 billion or 9.3 percent of the budget to support health service delivery systems across the country. In order to ensure good supplies of medicines in health centres and hospitals, I have allocated K900.1 million. I have also allocated K32.8 million for community health services in order to redress the imbalances between curative and preventive health care,” she told parliament.

Mrs. Mwanakatwe has allocated K2.2 billion towards social protection a demonstration of Government’s commitment towards clearing pension arrears, K1.1 billion of this amount will go towards payment of retirement benefits to former public service workers under the Public Service Pensions Fund.

“Further, I have increased the Government’s contribution to the Social Cash Transfer from K550 million in 2018 to K699.5 million in 2019. I have also allocated K110.9 million as grants for other social welfare programmes, such as the Food Security Pack and the Public Welfare Assistance Scheme,” she disclosed.