LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Largely concerned with the type of approach by President Lazarus Chakwera’s Tonse Alliance administration as well as selfish conduct of legislators, the Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has noted with shock on how some punitive tax policies have been endorsed regardless of their consequences on the poor masses.
CDEDI’s concerns are coming after the national assembly has skirted around the more pressing issues that are biting hard on the poor, such as some punitive tax policies which the mid-year budget review session of parliament has smartly dodged.
The calls by the local NGO are coming against the background that when presenting the 2020/2021 national budget, the Finance Minister Felix Mlusu announced the introduction of 16.5% Value Added Tax (VAT) on cooking oil.
It was immediately after budget presentation when CDEDI and other economic and social commentators advised government to rescind its decision, but to no avail.
CDEDI Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa told the news conference on Saturday, March 27, 2021 in the capital Lilongwe that contrary to Mlusu’s assurances that government’s decision would not affect prices for cooking oil on the local market, the prices have sky-rocketed, with a price adjustment of almost 100% for all the locally manufactured oils.
“As if this was not enough, the local manufacturers have warned that they will be forced to lay off almost 50% of their workforce, should the Malawi government fail to intervene on the matter, by swiftly moving in to scrap off the recently introduced VAT on cooking oil,” he says.
Namiwa says looking at the current prevailing circumstances, CDEDI, is being vindicated on its earlier warning that Malawians were sold a dummy in the name of the Tonse Alliance government, which cares less about the poor people, contrary to the alliance partners’ sugar-coated campaign promises that are hardly being fulfilled.
“Today, the average Malawians are failing to eat the promised decent three meals a day, simply because they cannot afford to buy cooking oil. Instead of creating the much touted 1 million jobs, there are gloomy faces of people on the streets who have either lost their jobs, or are hopelessly looking for a job,” he laments.
On a sad note and of course bad for economy, Namiwa says is unfortunate that the local cooking oil manufacturers are slowly being pushed out of the market by some business people who are smuggling low quality and hazardous cooking oil into the country, at cheaper prices, thereby putting the lives of many Malawians in danger.
“The threats from the local cooking oil producers have come hot on the heels of the news about the closure of a tobacco processing firm in Lilongwe recently, thereby rendering hundreds of Malawians jobless! And to add salt to the injury, the Minister of Labour, Hon. Ken Kandodo shamelessly told Malawians that the Tonse Alliance government is unable to tell on whether or not the 1 million jobs are indeed being created,” he says.
He said it is doubtful if at all is worth it for Malawians to really expect a better Malawi anytime soon.
“Hon. Kandodo’s statement can easily be answered by the job losses the Tonse Alliance government is facilitating. The scaling down of cooking oil production has affected the prices of raw materials for the commodity, such as soya beans and sunflower due low demand from the manufacturers, thereby hitting very hard on the small-scale farmers who mostly rely on these cash crops for their livelihood,” he says
Namiwa suggests that if the Tonse Alliance administration is really serious about uplifting the livelihood of poor Malawians, it should start implementing policies that really resonate well with the local people.
“Punitive policies must go. Let them be considerate by scrapping off the 16.5% VAT on cooking oil; a product that is commonly and mostly used by the local people in the villages for small scale businesses such as making mandasi, locally made cakes, kanyenya, etc,” he says.
According to Namiwa and based on the conduct of the current crop of legislators, CDEDI has left it up to all Malawians that mean well for this country, to be the best judges, especially now when they have been offered yet another opportunity to have their voices resoundingly heard this coming Tuesday, March 30, 2021 when they will be going to cast their votes during the bye-elections that are taking place in some parts of the country.
