LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Minister of Finance and Economic Development Joseph Mwanamvekha, on Monday afternoon opened the zipper of the national budget pulse in the National Assembly.
Notable sectors which have claimed a lion’s share from the budget are the Health, Education, Agriculture and Construction which have scooped almost half of the total budget.
From the budget, which is pegged at MK1.7 trillion, K101 billion has been allocated to the Health Sector with MK101 billion earmarked for procurement of drugs in the central hospitals and MK16 billion for drugs in the rural areas.
MK167 billion has been allocated to Agricultural Sector and this is higher than MK150 billion allocated to the same in the last year’s budget. For Farm Input Subsidy Programme, the budget has MK35.5 billion for 900, 000 beneficiaries.
MK178 billion has been allocated to the Education Sector; and this is on a higher side as compared to MK102. 2 billion allocated to the same in the 2018/2019 financial year.
Other areas which have received a fair share of the budget are the construction of houses for people with albinism with MK400 million, implementation of an action plan for the protection the same people.
Transport, Energy and Mining, Tourism and Sports, Youth Intership Programme and tree planting by the youths are also other sectors which have claimed their allocations from the national pulse.
The budget has also pointed at salary increment of 10 to 15 percent for the civil servants, with a minimum wage increment of MK1, 300 from MK900.
However, the budget has raised the eyebrows of some quarters with allocation of K1.6 billion for construction of Nyasa Big Bullets and Be Forward Wanderers stadiums, which are privately owned football clubs.
In May this year, President Peter Mutharika, promised to construct stadiums for the two football clubs; and this sparked a public debate with others arguing that it is a nonstarter for the taxpayer’s money to be used for the construction of infrastructures of privately owned companies at the expense of other public institutions which are in dilapidated state.
