negatively affect media houses that rely heavily on fuel-based transportation and/or standby power as they will be unable to predict their costs easily due to unstable prices. Other notable occurrences in the quarter under review included the presentation of the 2022 National Budget to Parliament on 29th October by the Minister of Finance, Situmbeko Musokotwane. The Minister presented a K173 billion budget focusing on four thematic areas, namely: Economic Transformation and Job Creation, Human and Social Development, Environmental Sustainability and, Good Governance Environment 29. Notable pronouncements in the budget included the upward adjustment of the PAYE threshold from K4000 to K4500 as well as adjustment of income tax bands as indicated below 30: The increase in the PAYE threshold could benefit media practitioners who generally fall within the target bracket for the threshold. Several journalists are employed under poor conditions of service with salaries as low as K900 31. The average earnings (depending on various factors) further fall within the K4000-K6000 band 32, which is still significantly below the basic needs basket 33. The budget speech is available at https://www.parliament.gov.zm/sites/default/files/images/publication_docs/BUDGET%20SPEECH%20_%2020 22.pdf 30 Source: Budget speech, same as 29 above. 31 During the quarter on November 10, Minister of Information and Media Chushi Kasanda expressed concern over the low salaries and poor working conditions journalists in some media houses are subjected to. Ms. Kasanda described the situation as disheartening. She said it was unacceptable for some institutions to pay their journalists as low as K900 per month. See https://www.lusakatimes.com/2021/11/10/low-salaries-forjournalists-worry-kasanda/ 32 See http://www.salaryexplorer.com/salary-survey.php?loc=242&loctype=1&job=6299&jobtype=3 and https://www.paylab.com/zm/salaryinfo/journalism-printing-arts-media/tv-presenter. Additionally, the 2020 survey by the Free Press Initiative on the impact of COVID-19 on Zambia’s news media, media houses, particularly newspapers presents journalist economic conditions. 33 The JCTR December basic needs basket for a family of five stood at K8,359.80. See https://www.jctr.org.zm/bnnb 29 28