Tanzania Government commended over 2019/20 budget, cautioned by analyst

Dar es Salaam.  The government has been hailed for its positive reforms in the 2019-20 national budget, but cautioned against unrealistic budget that cannot achieve the intended target.

An economist, from the University of Mzumbe, Honest Ngowi has said this during a budget breakfast organized by Ernest and Young to analyse the just released budget.

"The budget for 2019/20 is to a tune of Sh33.1 trillion, more than what we can raise it is so unrealistic, it would be good to use what we have," he said.

However, he noted that budget was an economic process but unfortunately also political thereby politicized to gain popularity.

In another development, he said the state of the economy has been growing at 6.9 percent through a number of factors including infrastructure projects like the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR),  Stiegler Gorge, Airports.

However he noted that the projects should embrace local content to benefit the economy more.

"Most of these projects are implemented through loans, for benefits to trickle down to the economy there is need for local content," he said.

He further noted that to unlock potential capacity there is need to also embrace soft infrastructure equally with hard infrastructure.

Explaining he said, countries are benefiting immensely from soft infrastructure including absorbing faster internet, e transactions.

He hailed the government for prioritising its budget on social services like water, health education, and agriculture but noted that the country was yet to obtain Malabo treaty of allocating 10 percent of budget to agriculture as well as 20 percent for education according to Darca agreement.

Further he said, on the issue of revenue collection, there was need to increase the tax base especially as a lot of businesses were currently suffering.

"They government can look at options of reducing tax to get compliance  ...Ghana has tried and broadened their tax base,' he said.

He said that Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) needs to have its capacity built especially on international taxation as well as new sectors which are involved in the digital economy.

'How is TRA prepared to tax the digital economy including e-banking, e-transactions,“ he said.

He said that there is a lot of revenue in the informal sector and government is also planning to invest in fishing port (deep sea fishing) which is a God thing.