The Department of Immigration has trashed recent media reports that the government of Malawi has hiked passport fees in space of five months, saying the reports are untrue.

Recently media reports indicated that the Immigration Department has hiked passport fees with immediate effect.

According to information seen by FaceofMalawi indicated that the fee for an ordinary passport was adjusted to K80,000 from the previous K48,500 , express passport was pegged at K110,000 from K58,500 while an emergency passport which takes two days to be process was claimed to be at K150,000 from K85,500.

Speaking in an interview with the State controlled radio (MBC 1), Public Relations Officer for Immigration Joseph Chauwa trashed the reports, saying no adjustment has been made on passports.

“The fee for processing the document remains the same, neither has there been intentions by the Immigration Department to increase passport fees
“We work on government’s order if there should be an increase but in this case we didn’t receive any communication to that effect,” he said.

The rumour for passport hike received heavy condemnation from the general public with others accusing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of being inconsiderate.