MALAWI: New VAT and PAYE & more – 6th Jan 2026

Muli bwanji from BA! This is the Rorshok Malawi Update from the 6th of January twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Malawi.

It was supposed to be an exciting entry into twenty twenty-six, but the Malawi Revenue Authority increased the Value Added Tax (VAT) from 16.5% to 17.5%, effective on Thursday the 1st.

This means that January, which is typically a tough month to survive due to the financial demands of the festive season, will be a bit harder to weather since the prices of goods and services are set to increase in line with the new taxes.

Telecommunications companies like TNM have already sent out memos to warn their customers about their new prices, while other companies have silently added the new tax silently.

While VAT is taking the lion’s share of local banter, people should also watch out for the new Pay As You Earn (or PAYE), which was increased last year and also became effective on Thursday the 1st.

Though it increased the zero PAYE charge from 150 thousand Kwacha (nearly ninety dollars) to 170 thousand Kwacha (about 100 dollars), it also made the PAYE taxes more brutal, ranging from 30% for the lowest earners, and up to 40% for the highest earners.

On Monday the 5th, the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry warned that the new taxes will strain both people and businesses, and urged the government to find new methods that don’t involve taxing already-struggling locals.

Also making headlines is the new Cabinet, which President Peter Mutharika unveiled on Monday the 5th.

He removed the Ministry of State, added four new Deputy Ministers for various ministries, and also divided the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining into two, namely the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Energy and Mining. This brought the Cabinet from twenty-four to twenty-eight, causing some people to accuse Mutharika of breaking his promise to have a small cabinet.

A Nyasa Times article said the new Cabinet is a power move to silence some people, like Vice President Jane Ansah and Second Vice President Enoch Chihana, who have had some of their responsibilities given to other ministries.

Meanwhile, strong winds and flash floods have affected eighteen districts nationwide.

While reporting the damage on Saturday the 3rd, the Department of Disaster Management Affairs said eighty-two thousand people, or over eighteen thousand homes, had been displaced; ninety-two had been injured; while twenty had died since the rainy season began last December.

Authorities from the Department said they are still assessing the damage and helping affected people, since the rains are still ongoing. They said they are working with the army and the police to rescue people. For instance, on Friday the 5th, they said they recovered five dead bodies that were washed away in the floods.

The floods are also affecting education in some regions.

On Sunday the 4th, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology released a statement saying that schools could open on Monday the 5th for the second term as planned, since the Roads Authority had fixed some roads affected by the floods. Still, they told schools in Nkhotakota in the Central Region to open on Monday the 12th because of flood-response activities within the district.

This comes as the government is dealing with a hunger crisis that will affect four million people nationwide. However, the executive is on top of things and is currently receiving help.

On Monday the 5th, local news said the National Food Reserve Agency bought two thousand one thousand tonnes of maize from Zambia’s Food Reserve Agency through multi-billion-Kwacha support from the World Bank. 103 tonnes are entering the country, with the remaining amount expected to arrive by March.

In one of our previous shows, we reported that the government introduced a reciprocal immigration framework where citizens of other countries would pay the same visa fees that their countries charge Malawians.

On Friday the 2nd, the government doubled down on its new policy, listing twenty-two countries whose citizens can enter Malawi without a visa, and individuals who are exempt from visa charges, like those with service passports.

For instance, while citizens of Jamaica and Ghana can enjoy visa-free travel to Malawi, Americans cannot, because of their new immigration requirements for Malawians, including fifty-dollar single-entry fees and fifteen-thousand-dollar deposits.

The Ministry of Homeland Security doubts the move will sour Malawi’s relationship with the US, which is one of Malawi’s key development donors.

People are questioning the criteria that President Mutharika used when choosing the 222 prisoners that he pardoned as part of the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.

The calls came out on Monday the 5th, after local news revealed that Pika Manondo, a businessperson, was on the pardoned list. He was arrested in twenty sixteen and was set to serve a fifteen-year sentence for charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder following the shooting of Paul Mphwiyo, the then Budget Director, during the wake of Malawi’s biggest financial crime known as cashgate in twenty thirteen.

The Ministry of Homeland Security confirmed that the President did not have the power to pardon people with murder charges, adding fuel to ongoing assumptions of abuse of power.

In twenty twenty-two, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (or MACRA) revoked the operational licenses of six radio and four television stations for failing to pay their license fees. Media rights activists, like the Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, accused them of violating media freedom.

Now, it looks like MACRA has had a change of heart, following its invitation to companies whose licenses were revoked between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty-five to submit requests for new licenses within twenty-one days. Their statement, dated Friday the 2nd, emphasized that this applies to companies that held valid MACRA licenses and demonstrated their efforts to comply with regulations.

Major broadcasters Times Radio and Times TV were not affected by any one of MACRA’s media shutdowns, but their stations have been unreachable. On Sunday the 4th, Times shared on their social media pages that their radio and TV were off-air due to a technical problem.

During their Hot Current program, which they livestreamed on their Facebook page on Sunday the 4th, Brian Banda, one of the program hosts, explained that the heavy rains had damaged some of their equipment, making it hard for them to air properly.

Still, he, just like their statement, emphasized that their technical team was working hard to resolve the issue.

In sports news, The Football Association of Malawi (or FAM) wants someone to design the kit that the Scorchers will wear during the finals of the twenty twenty-six Women's Africa Cup of Nations, which will take place from the 17th of March to the 3rd of April in Morocco. They are running a design competition where the best designer will walk away with one million Kwacha, which is nearly 580 dollars.

On Sunday the 4th, FAM authorities told local news that the competition is their way of involving locals in the Scorchers’ journey to arguably their biggest competition this year. They want the designers to be between eighteen and thirty-five years old, and to submit their design by Saturday the 10th.

And to close this edition, on Sunday the 4th, a Facebook page called Tiyeni Malawians shared a five-part story recounting the death of Evison Matafale, Malawi’s legendary reggae king, who died on the 27th of November two thousand one - a day now used to commemorate his life through a festival.

Tiyeni Malawians narrated Matafale’s musical journey, which started in nineteen ninety-six. Matafale’s songs were letters criticizing the government for abusing its power and a mouthpiece for the poor. The authorities were offended and, in two thousand one, sent a police convoy to arrest him. He was kept in custody for over three days without visits, causing his fans to riot, demanding answers.

Matafale was later carried to the hospital, where the police blamed his weakness and frail body on pneumonia. He died two days later, but a postmortem revealed that he had a cracked skull, suggesting that he was beaten while in custody.

You can check out this story with the link in the show notes.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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Pitani bwino!