Malawi National Assembly meets May 17 for 2013/14 Budget

Parliament is expected to convene mid next month where President Joyce Banda’s second budget while in power is to be tabled and deliberated on by the 193-seat house.

Speaker of Parliament Henry Chimunthu Banda indicated on Thursday in a statement that the president will officially open the budget meeting on May 17.

“Her Excellency Dr Joyce Banda, President of the Republic of Malawi will officially open the budget meeting at the National Assembly,” reads in part, the speaker’s statement.

All eyes are on how the 2013/14 budget would help towards healing of the sub-Saharan country’s economy which has been in a mess for years now.

Malawi Minister of finance Ken Lipenga’s finished consultation on the next year’s financial plan last week.

In the 2011/12 budget, government withdrew the controversial zero-deficit budget of the late president Bingu wa Mutharika in which Malawians were saddled with punitive taxes that made life unbearable in the hope of balancing the books following massive aid withdraw by donors.

Mutharika was criticized for poor governance.

However, the 2012/2013 so-called austerity budget introduced some economic reform measures such as the automatic fuel pricing mechanism which saw government removing fuel subsidies and that the fuel pump price in Malawi be determined by international market forces.

But this has in turn led to a hike in fuel prices almost every month and a drop in the buying power with most average Malawians affected.