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Letter To The MPs: Pay- As -You -Earn: Our Hopes And Concerns

We write in hope and recognition of the history, strength, spirituality, courage and capacity of the Members of Parliament and its Parliament. We write with deep concern, witnessing the deterioration in health care and education infrastructures, the weakening of social and community amenities, increasing spread of disease and other threats to the lives of the many children on the streets.

We fear as Economic Justice that people’s hopes could be destroyed by indifference and inaction by the Cabinet ministers.

The cry of Lazarus a sickly and poor beggar to the wealthy, insensitive rich man in Luke 16:19-31 continues to challenge our sense of responsibility. We cannot satisfy our moral obligation to the 75% poor by allowing only few crumbs from the table of material abundance to fall upon the poor. Surely, Honourable Members of Parliament, you would agree with us when we say that there is no tax relief for the poor, in this 2005 National Budget. The exempt threshold of PAYE from K260, 000 to K280, 000 is a mockery to the worker in light of the unfavorable prevailing social conditions, and with high inflation currently at 18.2%, this will erode purchasing power of majority of Zambians. As for the reduction of Tax from 40 % to 37.5% for the higher income group, the net effect is that the higher income group will benefit more proportionally from the changes. We hoped the 2.5% reduction could be reflected in all the tax bands if the measure was to really increase the take home pay for the poor working class.

This immensity of poverty, disease and despair particularly in urban areas threatens the stability, security and peace of the country. The promotion of common good will help all Zambians to live in security and peace.
In our effort to uphold our prophetic role and be the voice of the voiceless, so that human dignity of every individual will be acknowledged and that the National Budget reflects people’s views, we have responded by calling the government and the members of parliament to consider and increase the tax relief to K600, 000. This is inline with the Central statistical office revelations that for a family of six to survive as humans in Zambia, they should spend K 640, 982 on basic foods.

In concluding I would love to remind the Honourable members of parliament and all leaders in Zambia that the Christian faith challenges every person to respect the life and dignity of all and to realize the connection and common destiny of the entire human family. In Christ, we as Leaders discover the bonds of mutual solidarity with the poor people.

We must all respond to this call
Emmanuel Mali
Economic Justice Programme (EJP)

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