The main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has said the National 2025-2026 Budget is full of fiction and drama, one that is unrealistic and put Malawi in a serious  economic crisis.

Responding to the budget statement on behalf of the party, Thyolo Central Constituency legislator Ben Phiri said the budget has an economic context  of Malawi Congress Party’s (MCP’s) broken promises and lies despite that it promised Malawians  that the economy would improve within 2 years.

“Madam Speaker, the 2025-2026 Budget framework does not  inspire hope. It is unrealistic, and hard to implement. I can only  ask Malawians to be the final judge. Madam Speaker, the Honorable Minister of Finance and Economic  Planning has presented a rather too exorbitant budget of K8.05  trillion. The budget is too ambitious and unrealistic because the  revenue generation  is too low at K5.5 trillion.

“Fellow Malawians, you can see for yourself that this Budget is a  big lie. The budget has a deficit of K2.47 trillion. Where will the  money to fill the deficit come from? Again, borrowing is the only  answer. Malawians, you must be worried because MCP is ready to  put more debt burden on your shoulders, and a yoke of debt  around the necks of your children.

“Fellow Malawians, the 2025-2026 budget is unrealistic due to its  continued overreliance on donor support at a time global dynamics  points to heavy deductions in foreign aid. The budget is counting  on K1.14 trillion of donor grants. Recently, USAID announced  closure.  Unfortunately we are yet to be addressed on how the government intends to manage job loses due to the cut with about 5000 Malawians affected , how they intend to fund the services that were previously funded by the USAID.

“The UK government too has announced it will reduce budget  spending where international development or foreign aid will  experience cuts. Malawians, you must expect more economic  troubles. What kind of Government is this that has the guts to  increase budget expenditures at a time when revenues are falling?

“Malawians, forget about Malawi2063. The structure of the  2025-2026 budget has little to offer in implementation of  Malawi2063 vision,” he said