Minister of Finance and Economic Development Goodall Gondwe has hiked the 2015/16 national budget presented in the August House from MK901 billion to MK930 billion.
Gondwe disclosed this on Monday when he was winding up debate on the budget statement attracting loud applause from both sides of the August House.
In his statement, Gondwe said government has increased the budgetary allocation to the Ministry of education Science and Technology by K5 billion and Public universities will have an additional K3 billion.
The Minister also disclosed that the budgetary allocation to National Registration Bureau has had its allocation increased with K1.5 billion (US$3.3 million) after the initial K155 million (US$344 444) allocation while the Malawi Police Service will receive an additional K2.8 billion (US$6.2 million) on top of the proposed K21.5 billion (US$6.2 million) to procure equipment for combating crime.
As this was not enough, Gondwe also said government has head cries of MPs on Constituency Development fund and he said the fund has been increased from from K9 million to K12 million while the Ministry of Health has received an additional fund of K6 billion.
On Fisp, issued coupons to have a face value of K15 000 for a 50kg bag of fertilizer, final selling price will average K17 000. Farmers will have to add an additional K2500 for NPK and K1500 for Urea. Cost of government will be around K40 billion while the total cost of the farmer will be K6 billion.
Meanwhile debate on the 2015/16 budget is currently on committee of supply where MPs are scrutinizing budgetary allocations to various government departments.
