National Sports

FAM seeks Flames’ bus duty waiver

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has requested Ministry of Youth and Sports to negotiate a duty waiver with Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) for the Flames coach bought by the team’s official sponsors, FDH Bank plc.

The association’s commercial and marketing director Limbani Matola said as of yesterday, the brand new Yutong coach was at Songwe Border in Karonga and is expected to arrive in Blantyre later today.

He said: “We are glad that FDH Bank have fulfilled their pledge. It is a customised brand-new coach and all things being equal, we expect it to arrive by the end of this week. It should be noted that the funds used to purchase the coach did not come from the sponsorship.

Ntulumbwa: We have written MRA

“We are collaborating with the Ministry of Youth and Sports through Malawi National Council of Sports to negotiate a duty waiver with MRA because primarily, our understanding is that the Malawi National Football Team is the responsibility of government.

“So, we believe we have a strong case, after all, we do not have funds.”

Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa acknowledged receipt of FAM’s request.

He said: “It’s true. They wrote us asking for duty waiver of the bus. We have written MRA on the same and we are waiting for their response.”

FDH Financial Holdings Limited group chief executive officer William Mpinganjira made the pledge for a new luxury coach as a token of appreciation to the Flames for reaching the knockout stage of the delayed 2021 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon in January this year.

He said during a discussion with FAM leadership, they noted that the Flames bus was old.

Mpinganjira was then quoted as having said: “The purchase of the bus is over  and above our annual contribution to the Flames. This is just the beginning of more good things to come.”

FAM president Walter Nyamilandu thanked FDH Bank, a subsidiary of FDH Financial Holdings limited, for the gesture, saying the move will help the Flames as they were using an old bus.

“The bus which the Flames are currently using is old and needed urgent replacement and we were struggling to replace it due to limited funds. The gesture by FDH Bank is, therefore, very timely and we remain forever grateful,” he said.

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