Malawi Congress Party brands budget consumption-centred
Opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has warned that Capital Hill’s financing power could be on a rail of diminishing trend because of government’s continued failure to invest in areas of productivity.
MCP Spokesperson on Finance Joseph Njobvuyalema told The Daily Times immediately after Minster of Finance Goodall Gondwe presented the budgetary estimates in Parliament that 2015/16 focused on petty issues and yet again failed to stimulate growth.
“They have talked about investing in legumes but legumes will be relying on rain water so what happens in case of drought? It means Malawians will lose out,” said Njobvuyalema
Njobvuyalema said key areas such as irrigation, mining and tourism have not received huge budgetary allocations.
“We should have improved on sectors which stimulate productivity, for example agriculture. We should have invested in irrigation schemes so that even if we have erratic rains, we would still be producing for consumption and export. There is also need to invest in livestock production,” he said.
Consumer rights defender John Kapito of the Consumer Association of Malawi (Cama) said the tax deduction on luxury vehicles was unnecessary.
“We expected to hear more from the budget statement but the statement did not inspire me as a consumer much as we saw that there were some deductions from some taxes but we also noted that there were some that went up higher like communication facilities,”said Kapito
Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn) executive director Dalitso Kubalasa observed that the budget statement will still leave the country between a rock and a hard place.
He, however, applauded the government for making acknowledgements that the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) should be reformed.
While announcing that government will still maintain Fisp, Gondwe said it will use implement serious reforms to reshape the system.
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