Parliament has today passed K6.04 trillion mid-year budget after five-hour non stop deliberations.
Speaking after the passing of the budget, Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda expressed appreciation to members of Parliament from both sides for displaying Unity.
“I’m more than happy, with the unit of purpose displayed by honorable members, each one of them dedicated their time to pass this budget”
“This is an indication that this house is very serious in making sure that we move together as a country. So I’m really more than happy” he said.
There were concerns by some legislators that some ministry’s including Tourism, Roads Find, Immigration Services, among others, have been allocated undeserved low funding.
But to his response Chithyola said that has happened due to the impact of direct budget support which the just passed budget relied on.
“We are now receiving direct budget support that has impacted on the increase on certain votes”
However, other ministry’s like Defense, Agriculture and others have had their budgets adjusted after a review.
