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Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn) national coordinator Collins Magalasi said on Friday government spent within Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe’s K89 billion budget during the first six months of the 2004/05 budget.
In his paper entitled ‘Review of the budget performance between June and December 2004’ presented to the Society of Accountants in Malawi (Socam) pre-budget consultation workshop in Blantyre, Magalasi dismissed suggestions that the achievement could be attributed to the fact that this year’s budget was bigger than the previous year’s.
“Fiscal discipline is not a matter of whether you have plenty of money or not but spending what you have,” he said during the first of the three Socam pre-budget consultations sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency.
Magalasi said in his presentation that although some ministries and departments overspent, it was refreshing to note that “the usual suspects State Residences, Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), Parliament, Ministry of Agriculture and Foreign Affairs” have stayed within budgets.
Figures sourced by Mejn show that the State House has spent 156.9 million of its K450 million allocation representing 34 percent while OPC spent K182 million out of K407 million allocated to it and Parliament spent K125 million of its K337 million allocation for the year, among other things.
Ministry of Finance with K1 million beyond its budget and the Malawi Revenue Authority, spending K86 million more, were among the overspenders in the first half, according to Magalasi.
However, he lamented the failure by government to publish expenditure returns.
Some delegates commented that underspending by some ministries could also mean that they did not do their job as planned.
During the meeting, Socam president Jimmy Lipunga said Socam believes coordinated efforts this year will influence the scope and depths of the tax reforms being undertaken and, therefore, contribute to the formulation of a defensible 2005/06 national budget.
He said Socam is not against taxes but only brings to light the deep feelings of the tax paying public regarding the necessity of revisiting certain tax provisions in the law.
Lipunga said government faces the challenge of balancing competing ends against the backdrop of scarce resources.
Raymond Davies, Socam’s taxation and economic issues committee chairman, presented a paper on ‘Tax System Review’ which laid out a number of reforms aimed at creating awareness of public expectations to tax reforms at hand.
Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry chief executive Chancellor Kaferapanjira tackled means to make the business environment more conducive in his paper ‘10 priority actions for improving the business climate in Malawi’.
This Friday Socam will hold consultations in Lilongwe before moving to Mzuzu next Friday.
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