Treasury has said Government expects that the K22.4 billion which the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) obtained from local commercial banks for the purchase of maize will be settled through the budget if there are no any other options.<\/p>\n
But the Public Accounts Committee (Pac) of Parliament has faulted the government for saddling the poor with loans whose impact cannot be seen.<\/p>\n
Admarc is said to have bought over 100,000 tonnes of maize using the domestic loan which was guaranteed by government but the corporation has had problems selling the staple grain such that it is unlikely that it will settle the loan using the proceeds.<\/p>\n
When he appeared before the joint Parliamentary Committee that was undertaking an inquiry into his institution\u2019s purchase of maize from Zambia, Admarc Chief Executive Officer, Foster Mulumbe, admitted that the corporation would not manage to sell all the maize within the period it has to settle the loan.<\/p>\n
He, therefore, implored the lawmakers to help Admarc in settling the loan.<\/p>\n
In a response to our questionnaire, Treasury Spokesperson, Alfred Kutengule, said the government is currently considering how best the loan issue can be resolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government guaranteed this loan. It is, therefore, the expectation that the government will make good of it through the budget if there are no any other options. Currently, the government is considering on how best the matter can be resolved,\u201d<\/p>\n
Kutengule said.<\/p>\n
Regarding the PTA Bank line of credit which is an existing financial facility agreed between the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) and the PTA Bank, Kutengule said it will continue being used if there is a need \u201cbecause a loan is only created if there is a payment from the facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in an interview yesterday, Pac Chairperson, Alekeni Menyani, said it is pitiful that government\u2019s insatiable appetite for borrowing is weighing heavily on the country\u2019s development.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears we borrow without scrutinising whether it is important that we should borrow. As a country, we cannot take borrowing as a means of sustaining ourselves. We are mortgaging the future of our children with these loans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy should the government guarantee a loan without first of all clearly understanding whether it is necessary? This clearly shows that some of these loans are obtained without a clear purpose,\u201d Menyani said.<\/p>\n
Admarc was initially expected to sell the maize at K312 per kilogramme so that it could settle the loan without using the proceeds but President Peter Mutharika ordered a subsidy of the grain so that it should be sold at K250.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Treasury has said Government expects that the K22.4 billion which the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) obtained from local commercial banks for the purchase of maize will be settled through the budget if there are no any other options. But the Public Accounts Committee (Pac) of Parliament has faulted the government for saddling the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42987,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42981\/revisions\/42987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}