Leader of opposition calls for emergency parliament meeting on kwacha devaluation

Leader of opposition has urged president Chakwera to call for an emergency parliament meeting to review the 100 000 kwacha tax bracket and other taxes following devaluation of kwacha

In a statement after Reserve Bank of Malawi RBM devalued the kwacha by 25 percent, Kondwani Nankhumwa appeals to Chakwera and tonse government to cut down on foreign and local travels including those of ministers and government officials

Nankhumwa proposes that the president, vice president and ministers must take salary cuts, reduce 16.5 percent tax on basic products and stop political rallies

In addition he says Ministers and senior government officials should stop using big and fuel guzzling vehicles, government must recruit more people into cash transfer programs and ministry of trade to ban unnecessary imports to save forex

He stresses that the president, vice president and Ministers must not live like Malawi is an oil exporting country with large amounts of cash to spend

“The current government must accept that it made a bad decision for discontinuing the extended credit facility of international monetary fund which it is renegotiating now,” Nankhumwa

He says the rampant corruption in tonse government is one of the contributing factors to the scarcity of foreign currency because European Union is withholding aid

The leader of opposition adds that the devaluation of kwacha means that the 12 percent salary increase that civil servants got in 2022 to 2023 financial year has all been wiped out

Nankhumwa laments that the president is still going around on a hired private jet accompanied by a large group hence draining huge amounts of foreign exchange

“I am concerned with the impact the decision will have on daily lives of Malawians particularly those living in rural areas as prices and costs will go up hence leaving people poorer than before,” Nankhumwa

Nankhumwa further says the private sector will shrink as the already high cost of production will now double or triple in some cases quadrapple