13 votes before budget passes
A total of 13 votes are remaining before Parliament approves the government’s proposed K2.84 trillion national budget for the financial year 2022-23 effective April 1 2022.
Finance Minister Sosten Gwengwe has since expressed hope that the budget would be approved by the end of business today.
“We are hoping that we might have a budget by the end of tomorrow [today] because we are only remaining with about 13 votes. Our hope is that tomorrow, by the end of business, we should have the budget approved,” he said.
Gwengwe said there were some changes made to some allocations as recommended by parliamentary clusters.
Legislators passed 19 votes Tuesday. Among them, they approved the provision of K161.6 billion to the Ministry of Health, which has the biggest chunk in the budget.
The Financial Intelligence Authority vote has been allocated K1.2 billion while the National Planning Commission has been allocated K1.4 billion.
Parliament also agreed to provide K73.2 billion to Malawi Police Service, with the Malawi Prisons Service being provided with K15 billion.
On Monday, 25 votes were passed, bringing the total number of votes passed to 44.
Mathews Kasanda is a journalist who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Malawi (The Polytechnic).
In 2015, Media Institute of Southern Africa awarded him the Best Print Media Education Journalist of the Year accolade.
He joined Times Group Newsroom in September 2019.
