The Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) has expressed its disappointment over the omission of a recovery plan for the county’s private sector which has suffered at the hands of COVID-19 in the National Budget.

The sentiments have come in a statement from MCCCI, a response to the National Budget presented a fortnight ago on Friday in Parliament.

While commenting on the business environment, MCCCI has said it was worried over the budgets choice to neglect the suggestion of having a short and medium -term recovery plan to cushion and revamp private sector business.

The statement reads in part: “The Confederation is perturbed to note that the 2020/21 Fiscal budget has opted to disregard the inclusion of a recovery plan for the country’s private sector in the short to medium term.”

Meanwhile, it [MCCCI] has commended the governments choice of focusing on public sector financial management through improved governance and reforms at the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) through financial discipline, compliance and transparency when handling public resources.

However, with the chaos that has come in the wake of the pandemic MCCCI’s opinion is that there should have been a safety net should have been cast to help the private sector recover.

“The Confederation is of the view that the impact that the pandemic has had on businesses, necessary measures for recovery should have been considered in the budget,” reads the statement.

The MCCCI becomes latest to throw in a word on the 2020/21 budget which has been commented on by various factions some of whom have commended the budget and other have quashed it.