Chakwera spells out measures to stem escalating cost of living
President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera says Government has put in place strong measures to stem the escalating cost of living.
Chakwera described both the immediate and long-term measures as strong enough to ensure that prices of essential commodities are stable even in view of covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine which have pushed global commodity prices up.
Addressing a press conference on Monday at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe, Chakwera said among the short terms include removal of taxes on cooking oil and other essential products, saying Government has already implemented the measures.
He also said Government has changed policies to ensure that other commodities such as fertiliser are bought straight from manufacturers.
Currently, the government sources its fertiliser from third parties thereby putting the prices unaffordable to most Malawians.
President Chakwera also said the Marka railway line and the Nacala Corridor project falls within the measures that will ensure that prices of commodities continue to be stable.
“I and my counterpart Filipe Nyusi visited Nacala Corridor so that this project can quickly take shape once this project is done it means prices of our commodities will go down,” he said.
Chakwera said he has also ordered speedy implementation of Marka railway line which he said once it is operationalised, there is a definite expectation that prices of goods will go down.
The Malawi leader, however, fired a warning shot against those civil servants who are derailing his agenda for own personal benefits especially on the finalisation of projects such as the Marka railway line.
Chakwera said it is sad that there are some dishonest civil servants who sit on important contacts and delay implementation of critical projects.
He cited as an example of such dishonest acts the construction of the railway line which on the Malawi side has been delayed while the same railway line was already done in Mozambique side.
“Let me announce that contract for the railway line has been signed and anyone trying to sit on the contract and its implementation will see what I will do,” he warned.
The president repeated his appeal for the end of Ukraine-Russian War saying that this war is affecting the international markets and indeed Malawi as a country and leading to a rise in the prices of essential commodities.
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Why can’t we grow our own wheat and oil producing crops such as sunflower and peanuts then extract oil from them? We are a crazy policy country. We expect everything to be imported and we just sit, consume and complain. Dead brains !
The inexperienced president of all times. Saying what he cannot swallow.
The cost of living will continue tormenting Malawians if government continues implementing useless measures. This is wrong time for government to reduce the PAYE tax brackets. Those people who receive over K400000 their monthly tax has been increased by K30000. Yet what has been removed from cooking oil is K1900.00 only. Is this fair deal to Malawians. The K30000 that this government would have taken us a long way to cushion the shocks of economic sicknesses
Removing VAT on cooking oil has absolutely no effect. Even if the sellers reduced the price of oil by the VAT amount, the price of the commodities themselves has increased by 30-50% at least; some even more than 100%. So 16.5% reduction is simply insignificant. Of course even that has not been implemented by the sellers. As for the road or railway corridors.. these projects take years to construct anywhere in the world. Not much use to starving taxpayers. People actually can not afford to put as much food on the table today. Even those of us lucky enough to… Read more »