Namwala UPND member of parliament Moono Lubezhi says no matter how much taxes the PF government collects from the citizens, it will not improve the living conditions of the taxpayers.

And Lubezhi says due to inadequate disbursement of Constituency Development Funds (CDF) for her constituency, a lot of bridges have been washed away and schools blown off.

She told News Diggers in an interview that despite removing subsidies, the PF government had not shown prudence use of the savings.

“Even if they tax you up to your last drop of blood, I don’t see this government doing anything sensible for the people of Zambia. If I am to give you an example, when they removed subsidies, what did they tell us? That they were trying to save that money so that they take it into other productive ventures, those were the words. But you and I today if you see, is there anything that you can point at that the government did with the removal of subsidies? So whether they are overtaxing you and I, still more come December, we will not see anything,” she said.

Lubezhi noted that government had continued giving blank assurances to law makers that they would receive their remaining 50 percent balance of the allocated funds.

“Talking of CDF, 2015, 2016 we never got, not even half, not even a third. Then 2017, November somewhere there, that is when we were given K700 000 which is nothing. And then now if you recall last week when the minister came with the statement, we tried to find out those 30 constituencies they gave in full but the minister said he didn’t have that list. So those 30 who they gave in full we don’t know them. And they keep on giving us these blank assurances that they will give us. For me its not something that am looking forward to anymore because even when I go round, I tell people that we will come and do this and that, we will come and construct a one by two classroom block here when they give us CDF, you will just look like a joker in the eyes of your electorate,” Lubezhi said.

“I don’t know who the PF government listens to because CDF is constitutional, we budget for it, we approve the budget but come to disbursement, somebody decides to look elsewhere. So if you were to ask me that is this a listening government, I don’t think so. A listening government does what people say. Because they only gave 30 in full and we are 126. So the shortfall government is broke, they don’t have money because if they had the money, they would have paid us. They would have disbursed the CDF a long time ago. In 2015 they gave excuses of presidential by-elections, then again they gave excuses of a general election. Tell me [if] they didn’t know that we were going into a general election. They should have just given us our CDF.”

She observed that in rural areas, public institutions were in dilapidated states while roads were impassable.

“Talk about Namwala, the bridges have been washed away, the farmers are not paid, roads are impassable, schools have been blown off. So even if they were to say that all your gross, 100 percent goes to the government, still at the end of the day, you will not see anything. Here is ZNBC I was watching the other day, they (government) haven’t paid them. Those are statutory obligations. So even if you are broke surely, certain statutory obligations like salaries have to be paid,” said Lubezhi.