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MPs relieved on car loans

Members of Parliament (MPs) have been assured that they are virtually freed from government’s ‘draconian’ motor vehicle loan scheme they have been complaining about for many years.

The scheme, among other things, prevents the legislators from later selling their old vehicles bought using their duty-free privilege.Parliament_2014

Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Samuel Tembenu gave the assurance in the National Assembly in Lilongwe on Friday as the legislators were about to pass the Customs and Excise (Amendment) Bill.

The minister’s assurance came after a brief consultation with Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe in the chamber and, apparently, after the two Cabinet ministers jointly took a historic decision to put the issue to rest.

The complainants branded the scheme as extremely oppressive because, as it stands, it forbids the MPs from even transferring the ownership of their paid-for old vehicles to their spouses or children.

“We need to send the Bill to the relevant [technical] committee to amend the clause,” intoned Dedza South West MP Clement Mlombwa (Malawi Congress Party–MCP), as the debate heated up, with his colleagues concurring and saying they should not be targeted for the unfair arrangement.

However, many of the MPs cheered when Tembenu said he and Gondwe had agreed to later formally amend the scheme’s arrangement, thereby laying to rest the many years of complaints by the legislators.

The Bill was passed easily.

Earlier, Gondwe explained that government had seemed to drag its feet on the matter because it feared that a blanket loosening of the tight conditions on cars bought duty-free could have led to many other beneficiaries abusing the arrangement and depriving the government of its much-needed revenue in import duty, taxes and fines.

Presidents, Cabinet ministers, MPs and members of the diplomatic corps within and outside Malawi are among those enjoying the duty-free importation of vehicles.

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