The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has expressed displeasure over continued borrowing by government despite the country already having a huge deficit.
The concern follows Parliament’s approval of five loan authorisation Bills allowing government to borrow money from various international organisations.
DPP spokesperson on Finance, Joseph Mwanamvekha, said considering economic challenges currently rocking the nation. government should explain how it will repay such huge amounts of money.
Mwanamvekha said: “I asked that question because things have changed, you may recall that at the time we were leaving government, total debt was about K500 billion but as we are speaking now it has risen to K754 billion, so it has increased with more than 50%.
“The situation has changed, due to COVID-19 now the revenue collection is going down and now we don’t have foreign exchange as before,” expounded Mwanamvekha.
But reacting to the concern, Finance Minister, Felix Mlusu, said all the loan authorisation Bills have already been factored in the recently passed 2020/21 Budget.
Some of the Bills that Parliament has passed include International Development Association (Malawi Watershed Services Improvement Project) Loan (Authorization), International Development Association (Additional Financing for Malawi Resilience and Disaster Risk Management Project) Loan (Authorization and Ratification) and African Development Fund (Covid-19 Response Support) Loan (Authorization).
