In a bid to improve revenue collection, the government is focusing on four key areas in the 2014/15 financial year with the aim of reducing dependency on donor funds.
Deputy Finance Minister Mwigulu Nchemba named the areas as improving non-revenue collections, plugging tax evasion and careful allocation of the funds to really needy areas.
In an interview with newsmen outside the parliament soon after the morning session, Nchemba said the 2014/15 budget will ensure that revenue collections from internal sources are improved. He said the move would enable the country to become financially independent.
“It is very important to improve internal collections because funds from development partners are decreasing each year. Some partners also attach difficult conditions to the funds,” he noted.
He said this year’s budget shall ensure that funds are allocated to areas with special requirements. He explained that funds allocation will aim to improve the lives of the majority of Tanzanians living in rural areas.
“Why should we allocate funds for refreshments while the majority rural dwellers survive on just one meal?” he questioned.
He also promised to enhance supervise of the available funds and to ensure that non-revenue funds are used for the planned purposes.
Mwigulu said municipality and district authorities have been misusing the non revenue funds mainly collected from ‘wananchi’ for development projects. He said in most cases value for money is not considered as most of the structures put up using such funds don’t meet standards.
According to the minister, loopholes used by tax evaders will be plugged, whereby all those eligible for tax payment shall do so. He said the aim is to reduce the burden on workers.
Speaking at parliament grounds yesterday, MPs urged the government to implement their suggestions by increasing allocations to the ministries of Health and Social Welfare, Education and Water, insisting that the approved amounts should be disbursed to the respective areas.
They also argued that the 2014/15 national budget expected to be tabled in parliament on Thursday this week should among other things focus on removing tax exemptions on giant companies.
Gando legislator, Khalifa Suleiman Khalifa (CUF) said the budget should reflect suggestions made by the MPs when debating the estimates of the various ministries over the past few weeks in parliament.
“The MPs have called for increased budget in the ministries of Water, Education and Health and Social Welfare... however the budget should focus on dealing with long overdue complaints about tax exemptions,” he said.
Moses Machali, (Kasulu Urban, NCCR-Mageuzi) said he wants a budget which can be implemented. “It should be a practical budget; money set aside for various purposes should be disbursed in time so that projects can be funded.”
For his part Christopher Ole Sendeka (Simanjiro, CCM) said the approved budget should be respected.
He said for a while now there has been a tendency of transferring money from one place to another contrary to procedures. He said there has also been a weakness in the system as the legislators do not get enough time to assess the budget.
“The MPs are simply approving the budget but there is no system of assessing the approved budget, something that is not right,” he said.
He further said most of the public funds end up in power generating plants and road construction projects whereby in most cases contractors fail to implement the projects after signing the contracts.
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