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| Finanance Minister Goodall Gondwe |
The two main opposition parties in Parliament have different opinion regarding hope that 2015/2016 financial year budget estimates will promote investiment and production.
Finance Minister Honorable Goodall Gondwe on Friday, announced K901.6 Billion budget estimates which the minister said will be domestically financed and other social sectors will be supported through off-budget from donors.
Both, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and Peoples Party (PP) had expectations that the budget shall allocate more resources for investiments and incentives for businesses.
The finance Minister announced that from K901.6 billion, the recurrent expenditure will be K674.6 billion, while development expenditure will amount to K224.0 billion from revised K189.2 billion in 2014/15 budget.
Gondwe said from this Development expenditure, some K173.0 billion will be funded by external resources (development Part I), while K50.0 billion will be funded using domestic resources (development Part II).
“Yes somehow we see positive steps because we can see that about 26% of the budget will be for the development” reacted Ralph Jooma PP spokesperson on Finance matters in parliament and acknowledged government saying it is a way to go for economic progress.
He said is happy to note that K5 billion will be forwarded to councils to address issues of grassroots development, K6.5 billion for the improvement of city roads, while K3 billion for students loan and grants.
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| Hon Ralph Jooma: This is an investment based Budget |
He further noted with appraisal that awarding of contracts will be based on assessing number of Malawians to be employed by the company saying this will empower a lot of Malawians.
However, Jooma did not welcome Finance Minister’s decision to allocate few resources to some social sectors because are to receive off-budget funding. Hon Jooma said such is a worry some development since off-budget from donors are often unreliable and moreover, government has no control over such support including on selecting priority areas to which such support should be directed to.
“We can’t rely on that” he said, “As members of Parliament I think we should look at budget and not anything off-budget financing”
He also demands the explanation of the breaking of the allocated K7 billion for decent houses of which the minister admitted that only K2 billion has been used.
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) who earlier said expected the budget that; is explicit on how government intends to solve mess in Subsidy programme; offer incentives to businesses and clears outstanding arrears, has described the whole budget as “Not Pro-Poor and not stimulating Productivity.”
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| Hon Joseph Njobvuyalema: This is not pro-poor Budget and does not promote productivity |
In his view, Hon Joseph Njobvuyalema MCP spokesperson on finance matters in parliament says “Government should look at real sectors in the country which would promote growth and productivity. That’s not what we have done and it is disappointing”
He said though the budget has allocated more resources to Agriculture, it fall short of comprehensive strategies to sustain the sector in times of calamities especially droughts. He suggested that the budget should have emphasized on irrigation.
The MCP spokesperson emphasized that this budget should have put much focus on strategically allocating resources as means to boost the productivity in agriculture especially on irrigation schemes, commercializing the sector, livestock production even on the tourism and mining sectors.
“The poor people will not benefit” he said, “Mostly they are also budgeting on off-budget, donations these things are outside our plans and we cannot trust that they can stimulate our productivity.”
He said government has misdirected its priorities in the budget which he also said the budget has only reflected views of professionals and not poor Malawians “It is a very disappointing plan” he added.
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