MPs endorse 22.4trn/- for 2015/2016

...

INNOCENT-THE BLOGGER-BOY

Finance Minister Saada Mkuya

 The National Assembly has endorsed 22.4trn/- budget for the 2015/16 fiscal year and defended the toll increment on petroleum products insisting  that 276bn/-  will be  collected  and directly channeled to electricity and water projects.

 

Winding up the budget speech in the House yesterday, Finance Minister Saada Mkuya affirmed that the new levy would effectively be applied from July 1st, 2015. 

 

Tabling the budget estimates mid this month Mkuya said the levy for diesel per litre had increased from 50/- to 100/-, petrol from 50/- to 100/- and kerosene from 50 /- to 150/- per litre.

 

The Minister expounded that the move does not mean to punish Tanzanians but to make them contribute to the country’s socio-development. She said: “We have been striving to come up with an independent budget…this can only be possible if wananchi take part in the development process. We just want 100/- from every fuel user.

 

According to Mkuya they had agreed that funds to be collected from the increased toll on fuel be also used to speed up implementation of water projects in rural areas.  She said that 90bn/- out of 276bn/- will be directed for water projects.

 

She cautioned legislators not to politicise the fuel levy issue since it is geared to ensure economic growth from the grass roots level. She noted that it is very difficult to unlock the economic potentials in the villages without electricity.

 

“With reliable power we are going to economically empower rural dwellers…we can even reduce the rural to urban movement of people,” said Mkuya adding the coming budget had reduced donor dependency to 6.4 per cent only.

 

 The minister said that despite 27 per cent of MPs complaining on the matter, the government had resolved to maintain it because its primary objective was also to control oil adulteration  which cost the nation 600bn/-.

 

“This is the government commitment…I want to assure you that no single shilling shall go in the treasury. The money will only be spent on water and electricity projects,” she said noting the use of kerosene had also decreased from 1.8 million litres per day to 130,000 million litres per day.

 

Commenting on elders’ pension, she said the government had decided to increase it by 100 per cent from the proposed 85,000/- to 100,000/- per month. She said they also had set aside budget to identify all the elders countrywide so that they were included in the pension system.

 

Mkuya said other elders apart from public servants will be getting 10,000/- per month whereas the government needs to raise a total of 140bn/- each month as Tanzania had 1, 200, 000 elders according to the national census of 2012.

 

“It is our wish to pay every elder but the problem is how to reach them…we have been losing almost 6bn/- every year due to pension payment complications,” said Mkuya insisting after the identification process the elders will be taking their money from specific centres.

 

She said the government had been doing well on economic growth despite the small poverty reduction rate. She said the economy grew by 7 per cent but the poverty reduction rate was only 2 per cent. She however noted that from 2007 to 2012 the poverty had been reduced by 6.2 per cent.

 

Mkuya said that so far the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) had taken various measures to control the shilling depreciation one being releasing US dollar in the market. She said that governor had been releasing USD 10 million every week and that until now there was USD 400 million in the market.

 

According to her, the shilling depreciation was due to various factors including the decrease on country exports, increased shilling circulation in the market and high demand of US dollar by investors who are now depositing their money in foreign countries over fear of post election chaos.

 

Announcing the results of budget voting exercise, the Clerk of the National Assembly, Dr Thomas Kashilila said the budget had been passed by 83 per cent of the MPs. He said total number of MPs was 294 but 59 out of them did not vote.

 

He said that 219 legislators voted ‘YES’ and 74 voted ‘NO’ with Chadema’s Mpanda Urban legislator, Said Arfi choosing not to vote.

 

However, three opposition MPs voted ‘YES’ to the budget. They are Maswa West MP John Cheyo (Chadema), Wawi MP, Hamad Rashid Mohamed (CUF) and Bariadi West Member of Parliament John Shibuda (Chadema).