Expelled Roan PF member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili says the 2018 budget is an insult which proves that the ruling party is now MMD reloaded.

And Mazabuka UPND member of parliament Garry Nkombo says the cost of living will rise in 2018.

Speaking to journalists shortly after finance minister presented the budget yesterday, Kambwili said the introduced taxes would make life unbearable for the masses.

“He increases tax on geysers, he increases the tax on cement for the poor people that are building, what are you talking about? It is no longer PF I have told you, this is MMD reloaded, more taxes for the people. So I am extremely disappointed that we have moved away from what we stood for as PF and just going the Rupiah [Banda] way. I feel sorry for my grandmother in Mporokoso. While they are saying we are taking electricity to Mporokoso, they are increasing the cost of that electricity, they are increasing the cost of a stove, they are increasing the cost of a geyser telling my grandmother that you can’t bath hot water, you cant cook on a stove, you have to continue cooking on mbaula (brazier). That’s an insult to the people of Zambia, but anyway, when you have a president who is corrupt, these are the results,” Kambwili said.

Asked if there were any positives in the proposed budget, Kambwili said although there were one or two positives, the bottom line was that PF was taking away from the poor.

“Of course there are positives. One or two positives that I can say they are positives, I mean am not going to throw away even the positives but the fact is that we are moving away from what PF stands for lower taxes and more money in people’s pockets. You are taking away money, people’s income from the poor, taking it into government, thats Edgar Lungu,” said Kambwili.

And Nkombo, in a separate interview, said the cost of living would rise.

“The presentation requires to be studied in detail, from the face of it, we think that the cost of living is going to go up. You heard the minister speak about small things that amount to big things such as TV levy such as the excise duties, he spoke about the increasing the price of cement. What that means is that the rentals in this country are going to go up. The minister didn’t say much regarding the Lusaka-Copperbelt road. According to him, PPP does not quite include government but to our understanding, the public is government,” said Nkombo.

“So it also goes without saying that that cost of building that road and the recovery period and the players in there, we are told that NAPSA are part of the players are going to establish toll gates. If they are going to establish toll gates, the return on the investment must come as quickly as possible. It goes without saying that the toll gate fee will not be as it is with the toll gates that are run by RDA. They will be a bit more expensive. So generally I think our general comment is that this budget is going to increase the cost of living.”