Parliament on Wednesday passed the K2.2 trillion 2020/21 national budget.
The budget was passed after completion of committee of supply where members were debating each allocation vote by vote.
Speaking with reporters, Minister of Finance Felix Mlusu said the contributions from Members of Parliament through the committee of supply were mainly to do with developments in their respective constituencies particularly in areas where they felt that no consideration was given in terms of funding.
On the K754 billion deficit, he said: “The issue of borrowing is there but in terms of comparing of what happened last time and now, the deficit which our Budget has created is coming from the previous deficit which was already there. The deficit we found was K555 billion and we have pushed that to K754 billion with K200 billion being the difference,” he explained.
In his remarks, Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda said the passing of the budget shows that cluster committees did a good job. He added that the budget means that services will be provided although some issues have been taken forward to the budget review process and they will continue monitoring them.
In her remarks, Chairperson for Budget and Finance Gladys Ganda noted that some issues that were raised by budget and finance committee and some cluster committees were not taken into consideration but she added that there is an indication that those that are very critical will be implemented next year.
