Tanzania signals continuity of development path in 2020/21 budget plan
Dodoma. The government has signalled continuity of its development path yesterday by resisting the allure of coming up with new projects in the 2020/21 financial year.
In line with Tanzania’s Development Vision 2025 – which is implemented through a series of Five-Year Development Plans – Finance and Planning minister Philip Mpango yesterday presented before Parliament a development sketch that contains priority areas that are similar to those of financial year 2019/20.
The priority areas include: building the base for en industrialised economy; streamlining economic growth with improvement in economies of individual Tanzanians; improving the countries business climate and improving implementation of the overall development plan.
According to Dr Mpango, the government plans to raise next year’s budget by 3.79 per cent.
It plans to garner and spend a total of Sh34.36 trillion in 2020/2021 financial year from its domestic and foreign sources, up from the Sh33.105 trillion-budget of the financial year 2019/2020.
Development expenditure will rise by Sh450.8 billion or 3.68 per cent to Sh12.699 trillion during the 2020/21 financial year from Sh12.249 trillion during the current financial year.
Recurrent expenditure will rise from Sh20.857 trillion in the current financial year to Sh21.661 trillion in the coming financial year.
The development budget, said Dr Mpango, will go towards implementing the existing mega projects, including the 2,115 Megawatts Nyerere Hydropower Project at the Rufiji River and construction of Standard Gauge Railway line (SGR).
The government will continue with its improvement of Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) by completing payment for two Airbus A220-300s and one Bombardier Dash 8 Q 400.
“We will also buy one Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, two Airbus A220-300, one Bombardier Dash 8 Q-400 in the financial year 2020/21. We will also build the infrastructure required for the maintenance of the aircraft and ground handling services,” he said.
Special importance will also be directed towards improving the National Institute of Transport so it can train world-class pilots locally. The government, said Dr Mpango, will continue with payments of ATCL’s outstanding debts.
So far, the John Magufuli administration has bought a total of seven aircraft and leased them to ATCL since it came to power four years ago.
On the SGR Project, said Dr Mpango, the 2020/21 focus will be on completing the construction of the 422-kilometre stretch between Morogoro and Makutopora in Dodoma and the start of actual construction of the 676-kilometre Makutopora-Tabora-Isaka-Mwanza stretch.
Apart from purchasing rolling stocks, the government will, in the next financial year, also continue with the exercise of seeking funds to build the remaining part of the SGR from Tabora and up to Rusumo.
The Uganda-Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline, the Liquefied Natural Gas, Mchuchuma Coal and Liganga Iron-ore, Mkunazi Sugar Project and creation of Special Economic Zones will also receive special importance in the government’s agenda for 2020/21.
Education, health, creation of markets, people’s economic welfare, tourism and the minerals sector are among the many areas that will get a good chunk of the coming budget in Dr Mpango’s plan.
The ultimate goal, said Dr Mpango, will be to ensure that the gross domestic product grows by 7.1 per cent in the calendar year 2020 from 7.0 per cent in 2019.
Presenting the views of the opposition bench, the deputy shadow minister for Finance and Planning, Mr David Silinde, told the government to build a tradition of implementing the budgets fully as approved by Parliament.
He said implementation of the development plan was incurred in the maintenance of peace and stability, noting that doing so would require the building of an environment where political actors conduct their activities.
