Parastatals urged to grow revenue base
Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola Banda has urged parastatals to explore and implement activities that have the potential to grow their revenue base.
Speaking during the signing of performance agreements between Treasury and parastatals in Lilongwe yesterday, he said it was the expectation of government that State-owned enterprises (SOEs) go beyond delivery of quality service to Malawians to remit dividends to Account Number One.
The performance agreement contains a set of specific targets backed by measurable performance indicators to be achieved over the 2024/25 financial year.
Said Chithyola Banda: “We have noted that operation inefficiencies are still prevalent in the SOEs, many of them are not able to collect enough revenues and over reliance on the government with increased requests for bail out. This has to change.”
He said the agreements have been signed at a time the 2024/25 Budget Session of Parliament is underway to ensure implementation of SOEs performance, management plans and budgets (PMPB) aligns with the national budget.
Chithyola Banda warned that failure to implement the performance management plans and budgets will attract penalties.
In his remarks, Lilongwe Water Board (LWB) chairperson Inkosi ya Makhosi M’Mbelwa V said they fully complied on tax remittance in the 2023/2024 financial year.
He said: “The board posted a profit of K2.4 billion and remitted K200 million in dividends. We need to ensure compliance, because whatever we remit feed into the national budget and trickles down to national development activities.”
Some of the SOEs that signed the agreement are Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, Malawi University of Science and Technology, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority, Tobacco Commission and LWB.
