{"id":62087,"date":"2024-07-23T23:38:04","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T23:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt"},"modified":"2024-07-23T23:47:17","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T23:47:17","slug":"treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt","title":{"rendered":"Treasury takes up K23bn Blantyre Water Board debt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Malawi. <\/strong><\/span>Treasury has agreed to take over a K23 billion debt that Blantyre Water Board (BWB) owes the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom), Times Business has established.<\/p>\n<p>BWB Chief Executive Officer Robert Hanjahanja disclosed this yesterday in an interview with Times on the magnitude of the debt that his organisation owes Escom.<\/p>\n<p>According to Hanjahanja, BWB does not owe Escom K40 billion as claimed by the power supplier but that it owes it K17 billion as the other debt was taken over by Treasury.<\/p>\n<p>Last Thursday, Escom Chief Executive Officer Kamkwamba Kumwenda told the Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament that BWB owes the power supplier K40 billion in defaulted post-paid electricity bills.<\/p>\n<p>According to Kumwenda, Escom is at risk of loss due to the unpaid bills and emphasised the need for timely payments from MDAs and the water board to ensure smooth operations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year, we received Promissory Notes from the Treasury to sort out these bill, but nothing happened. This year, we have faced losses partly due to unpaid bills,\u201d Kumwenda said.<\/p>\n<p>But according to Hanjahanja, BWB plans to clear the debt within this financial year and remain current with future payments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBWB is Escom\u2019s largest customer, consuming a significant amount of power. Our bill is about 60 percent of our monthly revenue, which heavily impacts our cash flow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe operate below the break-even point, generating losses each month,\u201d Hanjahanja explained.<\/p>\n<p>He also emphasised the need to manage internal inefficiencies and implement a tariff that covers costs.<\/p>\n<p>Hanjahanja said a meeting with Escom and Treasury is scheduled to address the payment plan and review the Escom tariff structure, which BWB claims includes unnecessary levies.<\/p>\n<p>Secretary to the Treasury Betchani Tchereni was not immediately available for a comment.<\/p>\n<p>Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finance Vice Chairperson Ismail Mkumba expressed concern over the default payments and stressed the need for MDAs and BWB to honour their obligations for mutual operational stability.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is worrisome. Treasury funds the MDAs, and BWB generates revenue. Why is it challenging to pay these bills? We need to meet all parties involved,\u201d Mkumba stated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About Malawi Follow Africa-Press<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Malawi. Treasury has agreed to take over a K23 billion debt that Blantyre Water Board (BWB) owes the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom), Times Business has established. BWB Chief Executive Officer Robert Hanjahanja disclosed this yesterday in an interview with Times on the magnitude of the debt that his organisation owes Escom. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":62085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,410],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-62087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-to-homepage","tag-malawi"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Treasury takes up K23bn Blantyre Water Board debt - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Treasury has agreed to take over a K23 billion debt that Blantyre Water Board (BWB) owes the Electricity Supply Corporat ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Treasury takes up K23bn Blantyre Water Board debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Treasury has agreed to take over a K23 billion debt that Blantyre Water Board (BWB) owes the Electricity Supply Corporat ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-23T23:38:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-23T23:47:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2024\/07\/sm_1721765579.855085.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"596\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Treasury takes up K23bn Blantyre Water Board debt\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-23T23:38:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-23T23:47:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt\"},\"wordCount\":370,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2024\/07\/sm_1721765579.855085.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Malawi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/treasury-takes-up-k23bn-blantyre-water-board-debt\",\"name\":\"Treasury takes up K23bn Blantyre Water Board debt - 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