The government Tuesday trimmed the number of days for deliberating on the national budget from 14 to nine as one way of averting a possible government shutdown.

A government shutdown occurs when the legislative branch does not pass key bills which fund or authorise the operations of the Executive branch, resulting in the cessation of some, or all, operations of a government.

Under Standing Order 138 (3), debate on budget estimates is supposed to last for a period of not less than 14 calendar days.

Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda moved the motion to trim the number of days during which to deliberate on the budget.

“Considering that under Standing Order 138(3), debate on the budget estimates is supposed to last for a period [of] not less than 14 calendar days and that if the House is to adhere to this rule, it will not be possible to pass the budget by 31st March, 2025, which is the end of this financial year, I beg to move that Standing Order 138 (3) be waived in order to allow debate on the budget estimates to last for nine days,” Chimwendo Banda said.

The motion was adopted by the House, allowing the government to trim the number of scrutinising the K8.05 trillion spending plans.

Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda presented the budget statement in Parliament on February 28 and, thereafter, the House went into cluster meetings for two weeks.

During that period, cluster members engaged stakeholders for their take on the budget.

In recent years, Malawi has passed the budget days before the start of a new financial year.

A classic example where government avoided a possible shutdown was in 2020, when the Tonse Alliance administration came into power on June 28 with only two days to the new financial year.

That year, Malawians had voted on June 23 in a court-ordered presidential election.

President Lazarus Chakwera then swiftly moved to appoint a Finance minister, namely Felix Mlusu, and Leader of the House [Chimwendo Banda] to facilitate government business in the House.

Mlusu had to present a K722 billion four-month provisional budget on the last day of the financial year.

It was adopted by Parliament the same day, just to avoid the wheels of government from grinding to a complete halt.