Maputo — The presidential candidate of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Daviz Simango, has promised that an MDM government would reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) from 17 to 14 per cent.

Interviewed in Tuesday's issue of "Wamphula Fax", an electronic newsheet published in the northern city of Nampula, Simango also promised to modernize agriculture, stimulate rural trade, and reduce unemployment.

He called for "real equality of opportunity" which would allow all citizens equal conditions of development. Thus, should he win the election, Simango promised that his government would open lines of credit to finance small and medium companies while taking care, at the same time, not to boost inflation, and to rationalise public expenditure.

An MDM government, he added, would speed up decentralization and guarantee that more than 50 per cent of the state budget is allocated to the provinces.

By his calculations, under the present system, 67 per cent of the budget is managed centrally, 30 per cent in the provinces and only three per cent in the districts.

The MDM argues that this lopsided distribution of the state budget contributes to the perpetuation of regional asymmetries.