Opposition warns government ahead of Parliament sitting

As Parliament convenes in about three weeks’ time for the 2014/15 National Budget, opposition People’s Party (PP) and United Democratic Front (UDF) have warned government against putting Malawians under radical pressure because of its ‘bloated’ budget.

Speaker of the National Assembly Richard Msowoya has announced that the first budget session of Parliament for the Peter Mutharika government will run for five weeks from September 1 until October 3.

This follows expiry of a provisional three-month budget which Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe presented early June.

During the budget session, the finance minister is expected to present the country’s financial plan for 2014/15 which is budgeted at K743 billion, after jumping by 16 percent from last year’s K640 billion.

But PP has warned government, which is already faced with a fiscal crisis amid mounting debts and budget support freeze, to “plan carefully to avoid hurting the locals with its bloated budget.”

Leader of PP in Parliament Uladi Mussa said government needed to explain in detail how the budget would be financed against the backdrop of budget support suspension from development partners.

Other than broadening the tax-base, Mussa said government also ought to inform Malawians the main source of finance for the budget.

“We want to know how funding for the budget will be sourced otherwise government must not put Malawians under unnecessary pressure in form of reliance on taxation as that would mean more suffering for them,” said Mussa.

Government has said it would broaden the revenue base by, among other things, hiking user fees, fines and levies collected by its ministries and departments.

In a separate interview, Leader of UDF in Parliament, Lucius Banda, said much as his party supports the existing government programmes, it would ensure that only votes which reflect the dreams and aspirations of Malawians are supported.

“As UDF we would love to see Malawians having hassle-free access to basic needs like water,” said Banda.