GIVE CONSUMERS A CHANCE

Government should just let us have our money so that we can at least decide on how we want to spend it on the economy. This seems to be the last glimmer of hope that Eswatini can use to rebuild and start growing the economy out of stagnation.

Having government take all our money so that it becomes the biggest spender in the economy has jeopardised and even slowed down the delivery of Eswatini’s vision to be counted among First World nations by 2022.

Just so we are all on the same page, the economy is in a dump because of all the inexcusable government spending that has stifled growth and shot-up the country’s deficits. Government has been spending on frivolous capital projects, huge security forces and various global expeditions as if the country is part of the G20 already!

For your information, the G20 countries account for 85 per cent of the world economy, 75 per cent of global trade, two-thirds of the world’s population. News flash: Eswatini is not there yet and it will be a long, slow and painful stretch of road before the country gets there. It is high time that government starts practising what it preaches on austerity measures so that it changes its attitude on taxpayers’ money to spend like a modest developing economy that is steadfast in its endeavour to achieve its social and economic development objectives. In fact, Eswatini has a perfect National Development Strategy, if only it could prioritise its spending to execute that vision.

However, what we have witnessed from the tax collected from the economy is a big share of the national budget being allocated to first world aesthetics while underneath covering abject poverty. Government needs to first address our basic social and economic development problems before throwing money on unnecessary expenditures that make the country enslaved to loans. Does it really think we can grow the economy on a national budget funded through loans? On the one hand, government keeps hammering down on us crazy first world tax laws just so it can continue to mop out all the money into the G-wallet.

Taxed

On the other hand, emaSwati as subjects of this heavily taxed economy get nothing in return but more price-hikes upon price-hike to a level that the cost of living in has become unaffordable for a majority. The price of bread has gone up, people will now also find it hard to commute to work because of the hike on fuel levies, and government has just confirmed that our electricity bills will also be going up as soon as the civil servants get their cost of living adjustment (CoLA). And by the way, since when have civil servants become the yardstick to determine general consumer policies in the economy? Not every liSwati is a civil servant. In fact, a majority of emaSwati are struggling to make ends meet in the private sector with poverty salaries that never see any meaningful adjustments.

Government has failed to use taxpayers’ money wisely to afford every liSwati a good standard of living. Even after all the money it has taken from us, there is growing inequality and a shrinking private sector that is paying poverty wages and salaries. Whereas the public sector where all the money goes is using almost half of the tax collected to maintain a civil service that is dominated by the forces that contribute zilch to growth in the economy. So even the kerfuffle over CoLA that is going on is just yet another drain in the economy because a bulk of it will be cashed-in by the security forces and then our Members of Parliament will be empowered to inflate their salaries as well.

With this huge mess on how taxpayers’ money gets spent to the detriment of delivering key public services as stipulated in the NDS, it is time government cut consumers some slack on the tax they pay so that everyone engaged in economic activities can have more money in their pockets to spend in the economy as they see fit. To grow the economy, government must let go of its obsession of taxing everything possible to the last cent. Repeatedly, government has collected tax but only to find itself in a gaping hole of unfunded national social and economic development priorities that launch the country into one fiscal crisis after another. Isn’t it time to let the consumer lead Eswatini’s growth trajectory.

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