By Esnath Kalawe, Mana
Opposition Members of parliament through their Leader, Kondwani Nankhumwa have supported and acknowledged to provide checks and balances on the provisional Budget presented by the Minister of Finance.
The Provisional budget forms part of 2020/21 national budget has major highlights in wages and salaries including domestic borrowing among others.
Nankhumwa said Malawians are anxiously waiting to look for opposition how they are going to conduct business in Parliament.
“Opposition will provide necessary support as government embarks on the momentous tasks in managing the economy, we will engage constructively without deliberately opposing for the sake of opposing,” he pointed out.
Nankhumwa acknowledges to provide checks and balances to ensure that the new government representative policies are implemented for the benefit of all Malawians.
“We will draw from experience as DPP administration has been integral in keeping Malawi’s economy in shape in improving people’s lives, even amidst Covid-19,” he added.
Minister of Finance, Felix Mlusu said the provisional budget presented as a motion that would form part of 2020 /21 national budget.
“It is not possible to formulate and bring to this house a full budget that incorporates the aspiration that were promised to Malawians before the start of new fiscal year on July 1, 2020,” he noted.
Among other underlying assumption for the provisional budget includes inflation expectation to average of 9.4 percent during the period under review, exchange rate expectation average of K750.000 to US$ 1 and a policy rate to remain constant at 13.5 percent among others.
The House authorized the Ministry of Finance to withdraw K722, 401,910, 780 from the consolidated fund to enable government to deliver services for a period of four months from July to October 2020.
