diff --git a/slpkg/blacklist.py b/slpkg/blacklist.py
index 5cc5a87c..f39f70d5 100644
--- a/slpkg/blacklist.py
+++ b/slpkg/blacklist.py
@@ -17,5 +17,9 @@ class Blacklist(Configs):
         """ Reads the blacklist file. """
         file = Path(self.etc_path, 'blacklist.toml')
         if file.is_file():
-            with open(file, 'rb') as black:
-                return tomli.load(black)['blacklist']['packages']
+            try:
+                with open(file, 'rb') as black:
+                    return tomli.load(black)['blacklist']['packages']
+            except tomli.TOMLDecodeError as error:
+                raise SystemExit(f"\nValueError: {error}: in the configuration file "
+                                 "'/etc/slpkg/blacklist.toml'\n")