On 26th March, the Malawi Tourism Council (MTC) had a meeting with the Department of Tourism, which is under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism. The meeting was to discuss various incentives to cushion the sector amidst the pandemic, while the meeting saw the suspension of PAYEE and Pension payments by all private tourism operators, among other incentives. It was announced that the government was to respond to more incentives by MTC, but there has been silence and MTC feels shunned.

MTC board chairperson Tim Van Der Linden said the council  proposed eight incentives for the tourism sector, of which four were granted, as the government did not respond on the remaining 4 requests. “We clearly understand the difficult situation and that the whole Covid-19 issue has become a countrywide pandemic, but without communication on the progress made by the government, operators are frustrated.” said Linden.

According to the Ministry of Tourism’s principal secretary, Isaac Katopola, MTC asked the government to either make a once-off payment or pay part of salaries of compliant tourism operators for three months to avert possible closures of companies and massive retrenchments. He said the government does not yet have a response to that. Meanwhile, the current MTC incentives approved by the government are;

-A temporary waiver on fixed components such as ESCOM.

 -Suspension of interest on bank loans / Bank loans against a revised interest rate.

 -Temporary suspension of deduction Withholding Tax