LILONGWE (MaraviPost)- Jubilation was over the August House last Thursday, night, June 30 when lawmakers passed the much awaited national budget of MK1.149 trillion which will allow government to run the shows of the state from 2016 to mid 2017.
The national fiscal plan has been increased by MK7.7 billion from the initial proposal of MK1.2 trillion to MK1.149 trillion. This has been done due to the introduction of new budgetary allocation votes for the Greenbelt Initiative and increment made to Department of Human Resource Management.
Greenbelt Initiative is the new vote government created and has an allocation of K300 million. Ironically, the new vote was omitted on the Order Paper until it appeared on Thursday night when Government presented Supplementary Order Paper.
This year’s national budget is an upward of the 2015/2016 which had MK917 billion.
The House passed the budget after spending four days in the Committee of Supply where lawmakers were considering and passing each budgetary vote allocated to all government Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
During the committee of supply deliberations witnessed the deferring some votes including National Local Government Finance committee where members of parliament were pushing for the revision of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
Although this vote had to be sent back, it was finally approved later in the afternoon when government agreed to the proposed change of increasing the allocation from K12 million to K18 million.
Initially the legislators had asked government to deduct some money from the District Development Fund (DDF) and have CDF increased from MK20 to MK30 million but their wishes were not approved.
After thorough scrutiny, Goodall Gondwe, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development informed the house that the government had considered the MPs’ demand and had, therefore, increased the CDF to K18 million per constituency, the development which received much applause from the whole House.
When First Deputy Speaker Esther Mcheka-Chilenje declared the budget passed, there was a standing ovation, hand-clapping, chanting and ululations in the whole House.
The excitement was inevitable considering that the Government was not sure if it would manage to meet the target of passing the Budget by the end of the day.
The deliberations in the committee of Supply were marred with delays right from the start on Monday.
Actually the Parliament was spending over two hours of scrutinizing most votes since number of opposition MPs had a lot of questions and number of issues to raise to each allocation.
“We all know that for the government to undertake all its development plans we need this blueprint. Having reached this far as government we are very delighted and appreciative to all the efforts that have been poured from both sides of the house to perfect this budget in whatever way possible.
“This means the government can now pursue its development programs, particularly the passing of the vote for Greenbelt Initiative which has received MK300 million. This is the vote needed most in addressing food crisis in the country.
“Even additional funds made to Department of Human Resources Management and Development, it’s something we should smile at. This will make a difference to civil servants in terms of increment of their salaries which has an allocation of MK29.508 billion from MK21. 738 billion,” said Dr. George Chaponda, Leader of the House.
On his part, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, Leader of Opposition in the House and also Malawi Congress Party (MCP)’s President expressed satisfaction with the process the budget has gone through while suggesting that the future budget should allow lawmakers to have much time in scrutinizing the allocation of each vote.
The 2016/2017 national budget has a punitive package due to introduction of taxes-Value Added Tax (VAT) on essential commodities for the rural people whose income still remain less than a dollar a day.
The financial year plan has introduced VAT on sugar, salt, soap, bread whose prices will likely go up making already stricken local communities keep on straggling with life while on the other hand the country increasingly continue to face huge economic problems and persistent food shortages due to natural disasters.