BUDGET SESSION STARTS AMID ANTICIPATED HEATED DEBATE

THE 2017/18 budget session takes off here this morning, with legislators electing the country’s representatives to the East Af-rica Legislative Assembly (EALA).

The government proposed revenue collections and expenditures for next fis-cal year, the second under President John Magufuli’s administration, will be tabled before the house by Finance and Planning Minister Philip Mpango on June 15.

Already, Dr Mpango, in his National Development Plan and Budget Ceiling for 2017/2018 fiscal year, has hinted that the government intends to spend 31.7tri/-, an increase of 2.2tri/- over the current 29.5tri/- financial plan.

The minister proposes 19.7tri/- budget in recurrent financing, including 7.2tri/- in wage bill and 9.4tri/- for servicing the na-tional debt.

According to the minister, the devel-opment budget is projected to rise from 11.8tri/- this year to 11.9tri/- next fiscal year, accounting for 38 per cent of the to-tal budget whose projections indicate the national debt will swell to 9,461bn/- from 8,000bn/- as a result of maturing previous loans for financing development projects.

During the session, a heated debate is anticipated on implementation of the current budget, with some Members of Parliament (MPs), especially from the opposition, threatening to block the budget proposals.

There are claims that only 34 per cent of funds were released for the 2016/17 development budget, with out of the 11.8tri/- development budget, only 3.97tri/- having been released as of last February.

Among reasons advanced for the meagre release is failure by development partners to timely provide the pledged financing.

Notwithstanding claims of poor performance in the 2016/17 budget, especially in revenue collection, Dr Mpango remains optimistic that the government will collect 19.9tri/- from domestic sources, including local government revenue.

Source: DailyNews