BUDGET SHOULD FOCUS ON COST OF LIVING, RECOVERY

The attention of tens of millions of Tanzanians will today be focused on Parliament in Dodoma where the government will present its 2022/23 Budget. There are a number of reasons which make this particular budget the subject of intense interest.

The 2022/23 Budget will to all intents and purposes be the first national fiscal plan prepared by President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government.

Although President Hassan came into office about three months before the current budget was tabled in Parliament on June 10, 2021, the 2021/22 revenue and expenditure plan, which is currently being implemented, was largely put together when her predecessor, the late John Pombe Magufuli, was still in office.

Tanzanians are hoping that the Sh41 trillion Budget to be presented by the Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba, will provide an appropriate response to the spiralling cost of living, which has been fuelled in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine has pushed up global oil prices following sanctions imposed on Russia, and this, in turn, has led to domestic fuel prices soaring to record levels in recent months. As a result, prices of essential commodities have also increased, and are continuing to rise.

Various economic sectors began to recover steadily during the 2021/22 financial after they were impacted by the global Covid-19 pandemic. It is hoped that the Budget that will be unveiled today will stimulate further growth during the forthcoming financial year.

It is important that recovery is maintained and even speeded up since it will ensure that more funds flow into government coffers, and more jobs are created after they were decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

While the government needs every cent it can raise to finance the Budget, taxpayers hope that they will not be made to pay through the nose, which is why calls for the tax base to be widened make sense.

DECLINING LITERACY WORRYING

Many pupils still complete primary education unable to read and/or write.

Indeed, it is a shame in this day and age when technology has simplified learning at all educational levels.

A report released by the Mamie Project shows that only 31.7 percent of 1,000 pupils in Ludewa District can read, write and solve simple arithmetic problems – leaving 68.3 percent of the pupils still illiterate despite multibillion-shilling programmes aimed at eradicating ignorance.

The Ludewa report is seemingly the tip of the literacy iceberg – and fuller research would likely identify similar problems across the country. Certainly, the inability to read and write makes life significantly harder for individuals after their primary education; it also has an adverse impact on society at large.

This Ludewa report should serve as an eye-opener for the relevant authorities to take the measures needed to boost literacy.

Political directives alone cannot work when teachers are demoralised for one reason or another, while extrinsic motivation could breathe a new life into them.