Mwanamvekha says budget ‘hypocritical’

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is accusing the Tonse Alliance of formulating what it describes as hypocritical and inconsistent fiscal policy.

The DPP spokesperson on Finance in parliament Joseph Mwanamvekha made the remarks in response to the budget estimates presented by Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda two weeks ago.

According to Mwanamvekha, the budget is full of unrealistic assumptions which do not tally with the current economic trends.

“The assumption that the economy will grow by 3.6 percent in 2024 and 4.8 percent in 2025 is unrealistic and overly optimistic. As reported by FEWS NET the current rainy season has been influenced by El NINO such that there has been a delay in the start of the rainy season and most parts of the country have experienced severe dry spells mainly in southern region, lakeshore areas and in Karonga. As such, it is expected that the country’s crop production will be reduced significantly and the number of food-insecure households will increase.

“Furthermore, according to the January, 2024 World Economic outlook (WEO), the global economic growth is projected at 3.1 percent in 2024 and 3.2 percent in 2025, in emerging and developing economies, respectively,” said the former finance minister.

The economist also added that: “This government is not serious with budget implementation and cutting down public expenditure. If you go back three years, you will notice that government has been over-spending by large sums of money over and above the budgets approved by this August house.

“For example, in 2020/21 budget this August house approved a budget amounting to K2.2 trillion but by the end of that year government had over spent by a whooping K157 billion just in a single fiscal year. This puts to question the credibility of the budgets that we approve in this august house and this also casts doubt on achievability of 2024-2025 budget.”

Meanwhile, the United Democratic Front-UDF financial spokesperson Kapichira Mussa has concurred with his DPP counterpart, describing the budget as political.