Treasury officials yesterday struggled to give a breakdown of the country’s public debt stock when they appeared before the Budget and Public Accounts Cluster of Parliament in Lilongwe.
The officials, led by Principal Secretary Ted Sitimawina, Secretary for Economic Planning Jacob Mazalale and Central Internal Audit Unit Director Dickson Chasambira, appeared before the cluster at Parliament Building to shed light on public debt charges and unforeseen expenditures in the 2024-25 budget.
Members of the cluster had asked the officials as to the breakdown of the country’s public debt currently seen at K13.1 trillion.
According to the Treasury officials, domestic debt was at K6.1 trillion and external debt at K4.2 trillion.
But the members of the cluster observed that the figures were not adding up to K13.1 trillion.
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As the officials struggled to add up the figures, Co-chairperson of the cluster, Gladys Ganda ordered that the media move out of the meeting room.
The media was later allowed to come into the room after the cluster agreed to postpone the matter to later this week.
In an interview after the meeting, the ministry officials did not necessarily struggle to give the public debt figures but that the members wanted additional details on the same.
“So, what they wanted them to do is whenever we’re discussing a budget moving forward, we should have details of what has happened in the past for us to be able to give them another loan.
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“So, we have to have comfort first because at the end of the day, these are public resources. The Malawians will be called to repay the debt. Therefore, we have to know that the debt has added value in the economy of this country,” Ganda said.
In its presentation, the Treasury indicated that this year, interest on debt payments is estimated at K1.5 trillion from K914.86 billion representing a 61.8 percent increase.
According to the presentation, the Treasury attributed interest on debt repayment to the increase in the policy rate; debt service of loan financing the budget deficit and the external debt was also affected by the devaluation of the kwacha.
In an interview after the meeting, Sitimawina said the meeting went on very well.
