Review of the Budget 2017/18

What you need to know:

  • The theme was “Industrialization for Job Creation and Shared Prosperity,” a continuation of last Year’s theme “Industrial Growth for Job Creation.”

The 2017-2018 budget was read out in a 2 hour session in Dodoma on June 8, 2017 by Finance Minister Dr Phillip Mpango.

The theme was “Industrialization for Job Creation and Shared Prosperity,” a continuation of last Year’s theme “Industrial Growth for Job Creation.”

The delivery of the budget was met with cheers from many MPs, Particularly because of the provisions the budget was said to have on farmers and medium to small scale businesses.

10 things you should know about the 2017/18 budget:

 

10 things you should know about the 2017/18 budget:

Who were the winners in this budget?

● Farmers, Fishermen, The Disabled and the Tourism industry, all who had tax reductions in areas which directly affects them.

● Informal traders, also won, they will now be officially registered and have designated areas set aside for them to carry out their business, an area where they will not bothered by authorities.

Who lost in this budget?

● Big business were left frowning, particularly in the mining sector, with the introduction of a 1 percent new tax on the value of mineral exports to be charged at clearing rooms at airports, mines and other areas.

● Delving deeper into the budget, experts have warned low income earners in the country would be negatively affected by the Sh40 per litre imposed on petrol, diesel and kerosene.

● Abolishment of annual motor vehicle fee which will now be payable on first registration looks like a big win but the government has increased taxes on petroleum

products, which experts say will hurt those even without cars, as transportation costs will increase. This is also likely to impact the cost of production on goods and services.

 

● Sin tax, a tax on alcohol and tobacco went up by 5 percent, as expected.

● The skills and development levy, a levy charged to employers, was expected to be lowered again, following last year's reduction, but has remained at 4.5 percent. Meaning the budget is actually making it harder for Job creation, given our current economic climate. Is the budget really solving unemployment?

What some Tanzanians had to say about the budget:

The government’s Sh31.7 trillion budget is undoubtedly ambitious but will it be able to properly implement this budget after falling short of last year’s budget of Sh29.5 trillion?

Because, Only 34 percent of last year’s development budget was implemented. Some areas lagged behind their projected growth targets –like in agriculture which grew by 2.1 percent instead of 2.9 percent as envisaged.

Other areas exceeded projections such as the Transport and Storage sector which had a projection of 8 percent growth but attained 11.8 percent.

 

What does this mean to you?

 

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