The government has introduced a new wave of taxes in the Mid-Year Budget in a bid to stabilise an economy weighed down by inflation, foreign exchange shortages and escalating expenditure pressures.
On face value, these measures look like a necessary step to mobilise resources and keep the State functioning.
Government should indeed be acknowledged for attempting to respond to fiscal realities. In a country grappling with high inflation, rising debt repayments and pressure to fund essential services, it is understandable that Treasury would look to taxes as one of the tools to steady the ship.
But beneath this pragmatic façade lies a deeper problem—one that keeps resurfacing every budget cycle. For years, Malawians have complained about the tax burden. Yet, the truth is that taxes have never really been the problem. The real issue lies in how government uses the resources already available at its disposal.
Various fiscal reviews and anti-corruption audits have shown that approximately 30 percent of government revenue is lost to corruption. That is almost a third of every kwacha Malawians pay in VAT, PAYE, import duties and levies disappearing into misprocurement, bloated contracts and illegitimate payments. No tax reform—however ambitious—can succeed in such an environment.
It is, therefore, puzzling that government continues to introduce new taxes without first sealing the holes in the bucket. As long as corruption remains entrenched, every new revenue measure risks punishing taxpayers for failures they did not create.
What government needs is not another tax band or levy; it needs full enforcement of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis). A properly implemented Ifmis would curb misprocurement, stop inflated payments and ensure that every kwacha entering the public purse is traceable and accounted for. It is the control measure Malawi desperately needs.
But while government claims to be strengthening public finance management, some of its own conduct sends the opposite message.
The recent conduct of DPP vice-president (Central Region) Alfred Gangata—and his desire to direct public resources, including relief items, towards party loyalists—should worry every taxpayer.
It speaks to a persistent culture where political actors treat public funds as partisan capital. This behaviour undermines the very foundations of public finance and makes a mockery of the taxes Malawians are now being asked to pay.
All Malawians—regardless of political affiliation—are contributing to the national pot. They are repaying loans. They are funding ministries, embassies, service delivery and emergency programmes.
Gangata’s role as Minister of State, and indeed every DPP member entrusted with the mandate to govern in the next five years, is not to reward party supporters; it is to ensure that the State machinery delivers quality services to the public. Anything short of that is an abuse of office.
As the new tax measures take effect, households will feel the pinch. Businesses will adjust their prices. Investors will re-evaluate their risk. And workers will stretch their salaries a little further just to get by.
But unless government deals with corruption, strengthens financial controls and stops political actors from treating public resources as party tools, the country will find itself right where it started—collecting more, losing more and delivering little.
If there is one lesson Malawi must take from this painful moment, it is that revenue without accountability is pointless.
Capitol Hill must enforce a strict separation between State machinery and party machinery. Let’s not use public funds to advance narrow political interests.
The funds should be directed to recruiting technocrats who can deliver tangible results, improve public service delivery and create an inclusively wealth country. That is what Malawians are paying for through their taxes.
Without that boundary, every budget—no matter how well-written—will remain another Vision 2020: ambitious on paper, disappointing in practice, and costly for citizens who have already sacrificed enough.
