Gerald Kampanikiza, News Reporter
Malawi leader of opposition in parliament Kondwani Nankhumwa has asked government to cancel the planned Independence Day Celebration activities on 6th July except for a National Prayer Service.
Nankhumwa said this through a statement he has released on the fuel pump price increase.
“Under these painful social and economic conditions, the Government should not be spending millions of taxpayers’ money on dining and winning in the name of Independence celebrations when millions of Malawians cannot even afford a meal,” Nankhumwa said through a statement that has been posted on his Facebook page.
According to him, Malawians are not in a celebratory mood.
On fuel pump price increase, he said in Tanzania, fuel prices have just gone down due to subsidies effected by government upon seeing the suffering of its people and the situation is the same in Zambia and Rwanda and wondered if this is not possible in Malawi.
“One of the duties of government is to come to the rescue of its people in times like these, Mr President, this is the time to rescue Malawians,” he explained.
He further highlighted that in Malawi there is the Price Stabilization Fund, Which is meant to stablize the prices of fuel and urged those responsible for the said fund to account as to how the funds have been used over the past two years.
“I would like to urge relevant parliamentary committees to demand a report on how the Price Stabilization Fund has been used, and also a statement from President Chakwera on the same,” Nankhumwa lamented.
He further advised Government to also seriously consider reviewing some fuel levies to keep the price of fuel down the example being the AGGREKO levy which is still being collected despite the fact that recently Government terminated the AGGREKO contract.
“When the Tonse Alliance Government came to power in June 2022, the price of Petro was K690 per litre and today, the price of Petro is K1999 per litre, representing 189.7 percent increase and within the same period, commodity prices have risen with almost 600 percent, and currently inflation is at 19.1 percent,” Nankhumwa highlighted.
