YOU CANNOT TAX A PEOPLE INTO PROSPERITY: HOW LONG SHALL ZAMBIANS FINANCE THEIR OWN IMPOVERISHMENT?
The presentation of the 2027 National Budget today provides another opportunity to end the fiscal inequities that have impoverished successive generations of Zambians. Our national taxation policy has for far too long placed an unconscionable burden upon ordinary citizens while powerful commercial interests enjoy concessions negotiated at the expense of the public purse.
The 2026 Budget projected K82.49 billion in income taxes and K54.38 billion in Value Added Tax. PAYE alone accounted for K31.38 billion, against K18.20 billion in mineral royalties. A Zambian earning above K9,200 monthly faces a marginal income tax rate of 37%. The cumulative depreciation of the kwacha has meanwhile eviscerated purchasing power. The continued exaction of substantial taxes from already beleaguered households is economically indefensible.
Zambia occupies 752,612 square kilometres, compared with Chile’s 756,102 square kilometres. Their respective populations are approximately 21.9 million and 19.9 million. These are two countries of remarkably similar geographical and demographic proportions, both endowed with considerable copper wealth. Their economic fortunes, however, have diverged spectacularly. Chile’s economy exceeds US$330 billion, while Zambia’s remains below US$30 billion. Such an enormous disparity demands serious national introspection.
The taxation of employment income is equally revealing. Zambia exempts approximately US$251 monthly before imposing marginal rates of 20% above US$251, 30% above US$350 and 37% above US$453. Chile exempts approximately US$1,005 monthly, followed by progressive rates of 4%, 8%, 13.5%, 23%, 30.4%, 35% and 40%. Chile’s highest marginal rate applies only to monthly taxable income exceeding approximately US$23,100. The contrast between the protection afforded to working incomes in these two countries is staggering
The treatment of mineral revenues exposes another consequential disparity. In 2025, Chile’s mining royalty regime generated approximately US$1.95 billion from major private mining companies, while its state owned copper corporation, Codelco, contributed another US$1.78 billion to the treasury. Zambia’s entire mining and quarrying sector yielded approximately K28.14 billion, equivalent to roughly US$1.39 billion at the prevailing exchange rate, in net domestic tax collections. Chile has established a fiscal regime that combines private mining taxation, royalties and substantial state participation in mineral exploitation. Zambia must secure a commensurately greater public dividend from its own mineral inheritance.
The economic dispensation ushered in after 1991 progressively subordinated public welfare to the exigencies of private capital. The UNIP administration had previously accorded greater priority to public provision and collective welfare. President Levy Mwanawasa subsequently demonstrated exemplary patriotic fortitude through the mining fiscal reforms of 2008. His administration introduced windfall taxation and increased mineral royalties, asserting Zambia’s sovereign entitlement to a fairer share of its mineral proceeds. His determination to defend the national patrimony remains worthy of emulation. His is the only post 1991 regime that showed us what patriotic leadership could deliver to the poor.
The 2027 Budget must inaugurate a new era of fiscal justice. Raise the PAYE exemption threshold substantially. Relieve lower income households of excessive taxation. Reassess mining concessions and secure equitable returns from our exhaustible mineral resources. Channel public revenues into productive employment, education, healthcare, agriculture and the expansion of indigenous enterprise.
The poorest 50% of Zambians receive approximately 7% of household income. This egregious concentration of wealth demands a decisive reorientation of national economic priorities. Chile’s superior economic advancement should provoke a searching examination of our national conscience. How much longer shall a country so richly endowed with natural resources preside over the economic privation of its own people?
We have spent decades perfecting the collection of taxes. It is time we devoted equal ingenuity to the creation of prosperity. Zambia needs patriotic leadership capable of subordinating entrenched commercial privilege to the common good.
The mineral wealth beneath our soil belongs to the people, and its proceeds must contribute substantially to their advancement. The protracted exploitation of ordinary Zambians through inequitable fiscal policies must come to an end.
#FairTaxFairFuture
Saviour Chishimba
President
United Progressive People (UPP)