What’s new in the revised 2022-23 Fiscal Plan of MK2.852 Trillion

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi Parliament on Monday, December 11, 2022 passed the revised the 2022/23 fiscal plan to MK2.852 trillion 2022-23

On November 25, Finance Minister Sosten Gwengwe presented the revised MK2.85 trillion budget, up from the MK2.84 trillion presented in February this year.

Monday, legislators passed the financial plan with a single change to the Parliament vote, which has gone up by MK2.6 billion to cater for the next meeting of the august House.

On one hand, the budget has seen significant cuts to crucial ministries of Tourism, Trade, Labour, Transport and Gender, among others.

However, parliamentarians have added financial resources to State residences, Office of President and Cabinet, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Malawi Police Service, the Ministry of Forestry and others.

Gwengwe justified budget cuts to some of the productive sectors, saying the sectors could not absorb resources in the remaining months of the fiscal year, prompting the government to shift the resources to areas where they are most needed.

“When you look at consumption, you will be talking of things like salaries. There is no way you can reduce the salary of an employee. You just have to provide for that salary because people will need a salary at the end of the day.

“Then we have projects such as the Special Economic Zones initiative under the Ministry of Trade, where we would like to have (places like) Magwelo, the Matindi [areas of this world] developed. Not much traction over the past months and we had allocated about a billion (Kwacha) to the project,” says Gwengwe.

He added,” The money won’t be absorbed in the next two to three months. So it will be like we are cutting the development budget but it’s about absorption; it’s about the speed in executing some of these projects,

Gwengwe observed that, where projects are not executed with speed, the money cannot just stay idle in Account Number One but will have to be channeled somewhere.

Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament Chairperson Gladys Ganda expressed hope that government ministries, departments and agencies will put the financial resources to good use.

Lloyd M’bwana

I’m a Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resource (LUANAR)’s Environmental Science graduate (Malawi) and UK’s ICM Journalism and Media studies scholar. Also University of Malawi (UNIMA) Library Science Scholar. I have been The Malawi Country Manager and duty editor for the Maravi Post since 2019. My duty editor’s job is to ensure that the news is covered properly, that it is delivered on time, and that it is created to the standards set out in the editorial guidelines of the Maravi Post.