By Zweli Martin Dlamini

LOBAMBA: King Mswati’s Members of Parliament(MPs) mumbled as Finance Minister Neal Rijikernberg increased Pay as You Earn(PAYE) from 33% to 36% when delivering his budget speech on Friday.

As a result, Speaker Petros Mavimbela had to call the House to order to allow the capitalist Finance Minister to continue delivering his budget speech.

About fifty-nine(59) MPs including the Speaker were elected by the people within various Constituencies, however, some of them dumped the people and are now loyal to King Mswati.

The pro-Monarchy MPs normally opposed motions of public interest in support of Mswati’s government, some are then rewarded with Cabinet positions while other MPs maintain false hopes to be appointed and subsequently dumped by the regime after their term.

Now, Mswati’s government through the Ministry of Finance is preparing to dig deeper into the pockets of civil servants including MPs by increasing PAYE, these new developments suggest that almost half of the MPs’ salaries will fund Mswati’s lavish lifestyle.

Reached for comments, Nkilongo MP Timothy Myeni urged MPs to mumble even on issues that touched on the ordinary citizens not to react only when their interests including salaries faced reduction.

“It’s true that this Pay As You Earn(PAYE) increase will affect the citizens including MPs and we will fight it. I would like to urge MPs to always mumble even on issues that affect the citizens not to react only when their interests are at stake”, said the MP.

Speaking in Parliament when delivering his budget speech on Friday, the Minister announced the reduction of corporate tax from 27.5% to 25%, he went on to increase Pay as You Earn(PAYE) from 33% to 36%.

“We are reducing corporate tax from 27.5 percent to 25 percent. This is in line with the rest of the world reducing tax rates and aims to assist companies to grow quicker and helps to solve our unemployment problem. To balance the loss in the reduction in corporate tax the bill also includes the review of the initial allowances, penalties on late submissions on PAYE, capping of losses carried forward, and the increase of the rate of withholding tax on interest for non-residents from 10 percent to 15 percent,” said the Minister.