Treasury set to kick-start pre-budget consultations

Ministry of Finance is set to start pre-budget consultations for the 2022/23 fiscal plan by soliciting inputs from the public from December 20 to 23.

In a statement, Ministry of Finance is calling on the private sector, civil society, parliamentary committees, professional bodies and others to submit their budgetary proposals to the ministry for consideration.

Reads the statement: “The general public is notified that the minister will conduct hybrid [physical and virtual] meetings on the 2022/23 pre-budget consultations from 20 to 23 December 2021 in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.”

The exercise will follow a hybrid format due to the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure an inclusive budget framework that includes views of all stakeholders.

Consumers Association of Malawi executive director John Kapito, whose organisation is among the stakeholders involved in the process, said consumers find pre-budget consultations ineffective as most of the proposals are not taken on board.

“When you go out there and see what is coming out each year, you wonder if some of the proposals have been sidelined deliberately or whether the proposals were just unrealistic,” he said.

Similarly, Employers Consultative Association of Malawi executive director George Khaki said while some proposals are considered, to a larger extent, “most of them are not considered”.

Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences associate professor of economics Betchani Tchereni said at times, the annual fiscal plan has responded to the wishes of people.

Ministry of Finance spokesperson Williams Banda defended pre-budget consultations, saying some proposals are not adopted as they need further research.

The 2022/23 National Budget will run from April 1 2022 to March 31 2023 due to the change in the financial year to align with the country’s agricultural economic needs.

The current transitional fiscal plans runs for nine months from July this year to March next year.