By Pemphero Malimba
Leader of Opposition in Parliament Simplex Chithyola Banda says the 2026-27 financial year budget does not give hope to Malawians.
Chithyola Banda said this in his comment on the budget statement which Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Joseph Mwanamvekha delivered in Parliament in Lilongwe Friday.
According to Chithyola, the budget is not favouring people’s interests.
He said the budget shows that the government intends to tax Malawians more.
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“We expected the minister to revise tax measures that government put in place recently because Malawians have been affected by the measures. Now, for example the introduction of taxation on diapers, wrist watches… these will affect Malawians more,” he said.
He said the government has failed to highlight how it would ease the production cost of maize among other crops.
“We expected the minister to pronounce himself on what the government would do on food security under agricultural productivity.
“For example, the minister did talk about reduced price of maize which is commendable but no tangible interventions to subsidize the cost of production for one to produce maize because we need to address this both angles of demand and supply,” he said.
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He warned that failure to ease production cost of maize would lead to escalating cases of hunger.
“If this is not addressed, it will affect the future of productivity and inviting hunger in Malawi,” he said.
He faulted the government for suspending recruitment processes in the civil service.
“The government is demotivating young people. You have heard yourself that they have suspended recruitment and it is young people who have graduated that will be affected. No promotion of civil servants. If they are demotivated it will affect service delivery,” he said.
On free secondary education, Chithyola Banda said the government has failed to disclose how it would implement the policy in the country.
He also faulted the government for allocating inadequate finances towards Magwero and Dunduzu special economic zones.
“You will see that K7 billion has been allocated to special economic zones that’s commendable. But now the distribution of the allocation of those resources leaves a lot to be desired. K6 billion has been allocated to Chigumula while Dunduzu and Magwero have been allocated less than K1 billion.
“But when you look at the levels and degrees of the zones, one would agree that it would be better to have even distribution or at least substantial allocation to Magwero and Dunduzu to Mzimba,” he said.
He however applauded the government for adopting the Agriculture, Tourism and Mining strategy which he said was introduced by former president Lazarus Chakwera.
“The government is trying to sanitize the mining sectors so that nobody plays around with our minerals. That’s a good direction,” he said.
But Mwanamvekha said the budget targeted the welfare of Malawians.
“The aim is for Malawians to see things moving forward and be happy. In the budget, we have removed tax on several things; for example, on the welfare of the physically challenged, we have removed tax on supportive devices. This budget is looking at the welfare of Malawians,” Mwanamvekha said.
On welfare of civil servants, he said the government has a plan in place to increase salaries for civil servants.
“The issue of salary increase is there, but we have not indicated the percentage. There is a government negotiating team and the civil servants are discussing how we should increase the salaries, so once their discussions are done we will be able to tell the nation how much we are going to increase for the civil servants,” he said.