Malawi blows off K40bn to pay interest on loans – Finance Minister

Finance, Economic Planning and Development Minister Goodall Gondwe has said Malawi government has spent K40 billion as interest for its K150 billion loan, an issue members of parliament meeting from Monday for a mid year budget review will have to critically scrutnise.

Gondwe said the K40 billion was reached at because previously the government was not paying interest on its loans but now it has started following recommendations from the International Monetray Fund (IMF).

The Finance minister explained that the loan is just a carry over from the previous government and accumulated over the years.

However, Gondwe said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) led government has now drastically brought down domestic borrowing.

“We have brought the domestic borrowing well below the recommended IMF level,” he said.

He also said Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) has collected more than it planned, impressively beating its target for the K1 trillion nationl budget which parliament passed last year.

Members of parliament are expected to examine this and other issues, to see how the executive arm of government are implementing the budget.