The Health Committee of Parliament has proposed the imposition of tax on cigarettes and beer to help raise more domestic resources towards the fight against tuberculosis (TB).
Health Committee of Parliament Chairperson Matthews Ngwale said this in Lilongwe yesterday during a TB Evidence Day jointly organised by the Parliamentary Health Committee and TB Caucus and Malawi partners of the UK Aid-funded Light Consortium—that is, Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Research Programme (MLW) and African Institute for Development Policy (Afidep).
The proposal comes in the wake of a recent support cut by some key partners, including the United States government.
“We will increase the price of cigarettes so that some of the money from the increase can go to the Ministry of Health. We are also talking about people who drink beer in pubs.
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“Because if you go to a pub, you are forced to smoke. So, naturally you can get TB through that process and, so, beers should also have a levy, which will go to the Ministry of Health.
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“We are even talking about accidents on the roads. Whenever there is an accident, the insurance companies only look at the vehicle and very little about health care. The person is taken to the hospital and that’s it. But at the hospital, there are expenses. So, we are saying that they should start getting some money from the insurance companies as cover for the people so that the Ministry of Health also benefits,” Ngwale said.
MLW Director Henry Mwandumba said over the past 30 years, Malawi had made strides in the fight against TB.
According to Mwandumba, around the year 2000, Malawi had about 300 to 400 people out every 100,000 having TB but that, currently, the TB prevalence rate stands at less than 150 out of every 100,000 people.
The MLW chief said Malawi needed to move towards having less than 100 people with TB out of every 100,000 people.
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He was quick to say the recent support cut by key partners such as US would reverse the gains registered in the past 30 years if no strategies were put in place to find alternative financing to fill the gap left by the partners.
Maziko Matemba of the Global TB Caucus said Malawi only contributes 2 percent towards its TB fight budget and that the remaining 98 percent is contributed by development partners.
He said, as such, Malawi would be greatly affected by the cut in support by the development partners.
Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara said Parliament would continue to push for more resources towards the TB fight.
According to Gotani Hara, Malawi is coming from a situation where it had zero budget for TB fight and that, currently, there is about K87 million allocated to the TB fight because of lobbying by Parliament.
Discussions and findings from TB Evidence Day are expected to inform policy decisions, encourage cross-sectoral collaboration and mobilise resources to strengthen TB interventions in Malawi.
