Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesperson on Finance Joseph Mwanamvekha in Parliament says the assumption that the local economy will grow by 3.6 percent in 2024 and 4.8 percent in 2025 is unrealistic and overly optimistic.
Mwanamvekha is responding to the National Budget presented by Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda two weeks ago.
According to Mwanamvekha, crop production is expected to be affected by dry spell as reported by FewsNet, describing the budget as a piece of fiscal lies.
The former finance minister further argues that the government has for the past three years been spending above the approved figures; a development he says puts to question the credibility of the 2024/25 national budget.
Again, Mwanamvekha says in 2020 when the DPP was moving out of government, the budget for State Residences was K4 billion and that this year the budget has shot to K42 billion which demonstrates government’s non-commitment to cut on expenditure.
Mwanamvekha therefore says the current budget is Dead on Arrival, adding it is not aligned to Malawi 2063 as it has not allocated enough money to the three pillars of Agriculture, Industrialisation and Urbanisation.
