Parliament resumes deliberations today
Parliament is set to resume meeting today after a two-week breakaway session in clusters where legislators have been analysing the proposed 2014/25 National Budget.
A notice issued by Parliament’s communication department yesterday said during the past two weeks the cluster committees held discussions with ministries, departments and agencies and other stakeholders to further scrutinise the 2024/2025 Budget estimates.
Reads the notice: “Beginning Monday, 11th March to Monday, 25th March, 2024, the House is expected to debate the budget statement.
“The House will go into the Committee of Supply from Monday 25th March to Friday, 29th March, 2024 to consider the Budget and its related bills and other business items.”
Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola Banda on February 23 2024 tabled the 2024/2025 National Budget projected at about K6 trillion.
The fiscal plan is built on the assumption that the economy will grow by 3.6 percent while inflation will moderate to 23.4 percent from the current 35 percent. Meanwhile government expects K4.55 trillion in revenue.
The minister adjusted development expenditures by 63 percent from K1.08 trillion in the 2023/24 financial year to K1.77 trillion in the current fiscal plan although pressure to increase existing construction contract prices following the 44 percent kwacha devaluation may also have spurred the jump.
President Lazarus Chakwera’s administration plans to invest heavily in the construction sector where projects include rehabilitation of 16 roads across the country, the development of an integrated resort at Cape Maclear in Mangochi and Salima and the establishment of public beaches along Lake Malawi and other investments in agriculture and mining sectors.
However, the government will contribute a paltry K383.6 billion or 22 percent of the total development budget, leaving the donors to carry the burden of financing Malawi’s development with a K1.37 trillion contribution or 78 percent of the total capital spending.
In an interview yesterday, Economics Association of Malawi acting president Bertha Bangara Chikadza expressed concern that the dependence on donor support will leave the government “vulnerable if the donors do not honour their pledges”.
