Activists say the new passport fee of K50, 000 is on the higher side considering socio-economic challenges that Malawians are currently facing as well as reports that the number of pages in the passport has been reduced.
The activists were reacting to the announcement by the Department of Immigration that passport fee has been reduced from K90,000 to K50,000.
Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa said in an interview that government should further reduce the fee because the material that is used in processing the passport is not more than K10,000 and the Tonse Alliance promised to set the fee at K14,000.
He also alleged that government has reduced the number of pages on the passport.
“This is reducing the lifespan of the passport. These documents are not there to be used for tax collection. A government that loves its citizens cannot do this,” said Namiwa.
He added: “We will keep on pushing up until the campaign promise of K14, 000 is fulfilled otherwise Dr Lazarus Chakwera and his Tonse alliance lied to us.”
On his part, Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) Coordinator Kelvin Chirwa said that given that the elections are approaching, there may be a valid concern that the reduction is influenced by political motives rather than the true spirit of serving Malawians.
He said Malawians are supposed to remain cautious and scrutinize the decisions considering the timing and underlying motivation.
Chirwa went to say that during campaign period, the Tonse Alliance politicians promised a lot things including reduction of passport fee to K14, 000 which shows that politicians continue to take Malawians for granted as such it is a wakeup call up on all Malawians to remain vigilant and continue advocating for policies that genuinely serve the interests of the people, rather than being swayed by political maneuvers.
He then asked government to consider lowering the fee further down and improve the efficiency of the whole passport application process.
