Chithyola Tears Into Mwanamveka’s Mid-term Budget: “A Punishment Blueprint that Strangles Malawians”
Leader of Opposition Simplex Chithyola Banda on Monday delivered one of the sharpest parliamentary critiques in recent memory, accusing Finance Minister Joseph Mwanamveka of presenting a mid-term budget review that “punishes, panics, and deceives,” while offering no real solutions for a collapsing economy.
Speaking in the National Assembly, Chithyola described the budget as a desperate fiscal plan built on over-taxation, excessive borrowing, collapsing development spending, and populist promises that cannot be funded. He said the budget “gives with one hand and takes with two,” leaving ordinary Malawians poorer, weaker, and more vulnerable.
Chithyola opened his statement by highlighting revenue failures. Domestic revenue has underperformed by 3.8 percent, with tax revenue missing targets by 4.4 percent. Taxes on goods and services underperformed by K74.7 billion, while paye fell short by K39.2 billion. He argued that these numbers reflect a suffocating economy where production is at its lowest, investments have dried up, and the private sector is shrinking. Instead of responding with measures that stimulate production, he said, the government has chosen to punish the very citizens keeping the economy afloat.
The centrepiece of his criticism was the decision to raise vat from 16.5 to 17.5 percent. Chithyola said the government has chosen the harshest path at a time when inflation is already hovering around 30 percent. He said the increase will automatically raise the prices of essential goods such as food, transport, soap, and school items, and will hit hardest those already struggling to survive.
“The poor do not eat history; they eat food,” he said. “And that food has just become unaffordable to grandmothers from masambanjati to nkhamenya, from sandama to matapwata, from ilomba to nthalire.” He warned that disposable incomes will shrink further, poverty will deepen, and the cost of survival will rise sharply for low-income families who are already unable to buy basics like salt.
Chithyola also condemned the newly introduced 0.05 percent levy on bank and mobile money transfers, calling it double taxation disguised as modernisation. He said the levy punishes villagers receiving support from their children in towns, punishes small businesses trying to operate cashless, and punishes the unbanked trying to join the formal financial system. He argued that the levy will force people to return to storing cash in their homes, reversing years of financial-inclusion gains.
He criticised the decision to tax gambling winnings as low as K2,000, calling it “petty and desperate,” and warned that withholding taxes on rental income, together with new surcharges on cement and insurance, will worsen the cost of living and weaken small-scale businesses. He described the entire tax plan as a cycle of tax upon tax. To illustrate the burden, he quoted an Indian citizen who once lamented: “if you earn money, you pay tax. if you spend money, you pay tax. if you buy, you pay tax. if you sell, you pay tax. then you pay taxes again using money that has already been taxed.”
Chithyola accused the government of freezing the future of young people through the employment freeze and the stagnation of promotions. With an 18.3 percent over-expenditure on the wage bill, government has suspended recruitment and promotions across the public service. Chithyola said this decision will cripple schools already lacking teachers, hospitals already lacking specialists, and police and extension services that are already overstretched. He said the freeze is “reckless, cruel and short-sighted,” and that it kills morale among civil servants while worsening unemployment among graduates.
He then turned to the spending side of the budget. Expenditure has been revised upwards by K512.6 billion to K8.59 trillion despite collapsing revenue and grants. Chithyola criticised the sharp rise in recurrent expenditure by K602 billion, while development spending has been cut by K89.9 billion. He said the government is feeding consumption and starving development, which is the exact opposite of what Malawi needs.
Interest payments have increased by K100 billion to K2.27 trillion, almost one-third of total recurrent expenditure. Chithyola warned that Malawi cannot invest in its future when so much money is spent servicing debt. He criticised the projected rise in domestic borrowing from K1.46 trillion to K2.94 trillion, saying it will crowd out the private sector, drive up interest rates, weaken the kwacha, fuel inflation and make credit inaccessible for farmers, smes and households.
On grants, Chithyola noted a 43 percent underperformance and a projected decline of K159.7 billion. He said this is not only a financial gap but also a sign that Malawi has lost credibility with development partners. He challenged Mwanamveka to explain how a deficit rising to 11 percent of gdp can be considered sustainable.
Chithyola also dismantled what he called the government’s “populist illusions.” He said the decision to double AIP beneficiaries from 528,020 to 1.1 million at an additional cost of K129.6 billion is unrealistic given the scarcity of forex needed to import fertiliser. He said free secondary education is being announced without classrooms, teaching materials or teachers. He dismissed the promise of K5 billion per constituency as a “post-dated cheque on an empty account,” delayed to April 2026 as a political trap rather than a genuine intervention.
He mocked the administration’s claims of austerity, saying the so-called cuts to travel, fuel and vehicle purchases are meaningless when the government has just appointed what he described as a bloated cabinet and advisory team. “This is an appeasement government created to reward funders and concubines,” he said.
Chithyola concluded by calling the budget a betrayal that taxes the poor to fund government inefficiency. He assured civil servants that their take-home pay will shrink because of excessive taxation, warned motorists that fuel prices will rise under automatic pricing, and told parents that their children will graduate into unemployment under a recruitment freeze.
He said Malawi still has hope and that the next 1,750 days before the 2030 elections will give citizens a chance to “speak with one voice” and reverse what he called the mismanagement of the current administration. He said MCP will not support any budget that taxes the poor to fund government laziness and lack of innovation.
Chithyola demanded an immediate reversal of the vat increase, the scrapping of the transfer levy, a production-based forex plan, and a home-grown monetary policy debated and approved by Parliament rather than dictated by external institutions.
He ended with a warning: “Malawians are watching.”
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