The Malawi government through the Finance acknowledged through the national budget statement that various requests for VAT exemptions which couldn’t be implemented in the 2020-2021 national budget will be considered in subsequent national budgets.
This follows after the network has made several recommendations to remove VAT on WASH facilities which include sanitary pads and water points among others.
As a network, we are happy and commend government for such an effort. However, there is still more. We need an increase in the funding. 1% is far from not being enough. The WASH sector is one of the sectors that when little attention is put the economy dwindles. An example is the is the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report showing that Foreign Direct Investment will drop to $58.8 million (MK43.5 billion) and $98million (MK72.5 billion) due to COVID-19 which is 100% WASH.