Malawi’s 2018/19 budget pegged at K1.5 trillion

Minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe has this afternoon presented the K1.5 trillion 2018/19 national budget which include plans to recruit teachers and medical workers and increase civil servants’ salaries.

When presenting the budget in Lilongwe, Gondwe said there is a development budget of K391.7 billion which represents 7.3 percent of GDP and a development budget K1.1 trillion which is 20.7 percent of GDP.

In the budget, the education sector has received a huge chunk with close to K166 billion while the Agricultural sector has been given K151 billion. The Health sector ranks third at K86.7 billion.

Within a total of K392 billion of the Development Budget, the highest allocation has gone to the Agricultural sector with an amount of K78 billion compared to K43 billion to the Education sector and K69 billion which has been allocated for road construction.

Out of the K1.5 trillion, K1 trillion will be from domestic revenue and K209 billion will come from grants out of which K60 billion is budget support from the World Bank.

“On the whole therefore, this is a controlled budget. The rise in tax revenue matches the expected average annual inflation rate of just over 7.0 percent. The recurrent budget itself with a rise of 7.4 percent is closely aligned to growth in the tax revenue,” said Gondwe.

The minister announced that in the 2018/19 budget the wage bill has increased by 24.3 percent over the previous budget due to a 20 percent salary adjustment for junior servants and 10 percent salary hike for senior public workers.

Gondwe also revealed plans to recruit 10,500 primary school teachers, 500 secondary school teachers and 1,000 medical personnel.

“Thus starting from this year, teachers and other personnel will be recruited soon after their graduation. The practice that started in 2013 to recruit teachers one year after graduation will no longer be necessary. Mr. Speaker Sir, in this Budget we have also provided resources for increments in our Chief’s honoraria across all ranks,” said Gondwe.

He further announced that government will fund the 2019 tripartite elections without donor support.

The elections budget is estimated at K31.5 billion and will cover voter registration and verification, education and outreach, election materials, vehicles and polling services.

Government has also allocated K41.5 billion to the Farm Input Subsidy Program which will reach out to one million beneficiaries for both fertilizer and seeds. This is an increase from the 2017/18 revised figure of K33.2 billion.