THE government has unveiled a range of cost-cutting measures in the 2022/2023 national budget tabled in the National Assembly by Finance and Planning Minister, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba on Tuesday.
The budget highlights the government's strategies to increase revenue and cut expenditure during the coming financial year, as it looks to cut public spending and relieve citizens from the pinch of rising costs of living.
The 41.48tri/- budget, the second budget under President Samia Suluhu Hassan's six phase government, has been prepared based on macroeconomic assumptions and targets, Dr Nchemba told the august House.
"The President had directed that this budget should focus on bringing relief to the citizens and accelerate eco- nomic recovery," the minister said.
Dr Nchemba said the expenditure policies for 2022/2023 will focus on mini- mizing spending, whereby the government plans to conduct an analysis of how best to implement and control the pro- curement and use of vehicles.
The government, he said, will put in place both short and long-term measures, including minimizing spending on domestic and foreign travels, reduce procurement costs, reduce delegation sizes for domestic and foreign meetings and enhance control of fuel consumption of government vehicles.
"I instruct the Paymaster General to conduct a thorough analysis on the use of fuel depending on responsibilities, necessity and ranks in public service," Dr Nchemba said.
The medium and long-term measures proposed by the government include lending vehicles to the qualified government officials, who will bear maintenance costs, while "fuel will be provided in an appropriate manner."
Currently, the government has more than 15,742 vehicles, 14,047 motor cycles and 373 machines and spends more than 558,453,134,226/- annually in purchasing vehicles, fuel, spare parts 11 and maintenance.
He said other officials entitled with motor vehicle facilities will be provided with loans for motor vehicles, which will minimize cost of maintenance, fuel and spare parts of vehicles.
"With this approach, the cost of maintenance, fuel and spare parts of the Government for motor vehicles will amount to approximately 50,508,038,843/-," said the minister, noting that a saving of more than 500bn/ will be realized and allocated to procurement of essential medicines, providing loans to stu- dents for technical colleges and implementation of development projects.
He further stated that the government will enhance the public procurement system to ensure the value for money objective is achieved.
The minister said the government also intends to improve the Tanzania National e-Procurement System (TANePS) including setting price ceilings for goods and services to be acquired.
"The government will also ensure that all prices for cataloged goods and services used are captured in the TANePS and effectively applied.
This will prohibit providers and oth- er suppliers who inflate prices."
Other measures include strengthening the use of information and communication technology in government's operations in order to curb expenditures, saying all regional conference rooms should have ICT facilities for virtual meetings.
"This will reduce costs to the Government by avoiding Regional Commissioners, Heads of Departments, District Commissioners and District Executive Directors 13 travelling from their respective areas," said Dr Nchemba, adding; "We want to replace the expression "government works on papers" with "government works on records".
Also, the government plans to review the Public Procurement Act, 2011 in order to address the loopholes that provide opportunities for projects to be implemented without observ- ing value for money.
Outlining the government's strategy for increasing revenues, the minister said in the next financial year more efforts will be placed in the fight against corruption in tax collection, among other measures.
Dr Nchemba said there are still corruption practices in tax collection, especially on large taxes, where some of the gov- ernment revenues tend to go into individual pockets.
"This is done through over estimation of the tax amount so that during negotiations, the appropriate tax is paid and the difference goes into individual pockets," he revealed, adding that those who refuse to offer bribes are subjected to unreasonable estimates of taxes and threatened with bankruptcy.
"This practice is not acceptable and cannot be tolerated. Let us stop the bargaining on paying taxes," charged the minister, who also warned tax cheaters and tax collectors who collude with traders for undermining the government's efforts to strengthen the economy.
"I urge all Tanzanians to pay taxes as required, report all acts of corruption, and not to be afraid of threats of revenge," he encouraged, saying the government will dismiss and prosecute dishonest TRA officials.
"We must completely stop corruption practices in gov- ernment revenue and expendi- ture," he stressed. Out of the 41.48tri/-, the re- current expenditure is 26.48tri/- , equivalent to 63.8 per cent of the total amount, whereby 11.3tri/- is for servicing government debt and other 9.3tri/- for salaries and the other 5.3tri/- for other charges.
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The development budget is expected to be 15tri/-, equivalent to 36.2 per cent of the budget.
With this budget, it is estimated that the Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate will reach 5.3 per cent from the current 4.7 per cent.
Domestic revenue collection is estimated at 14.9 per cent of GDP and tax revenue collection is projected at 11.7 per cent of GDP in the next fiscal year.
In addition, the government intends to strengthen the use of ICT systems in tax estimation for small entrepreneurs who are incapable of maintaining records and preparing their accounts, invest in the use of technology to facilitate electronic filing of tax returns and timely payment of taxes.
The minister said the government will strengthen the Government electronic Payment Gateway (GePG) and emphasize on the use of control numbers and strengthen control systems in Government Agencies, Public Institutions and Corporations to increase efficiency and ensure appropriate dividends and contributions are timely paid.
In order to increase the private sector's contribution to the economy, employment opportunities and revenue collections at large, the government intends to continue improving the business environment and open up more opportunities for the private sector.
