Dodoma — DODOMA: MEMBERS of Parliament will vote for the proposed government budget for 2024/2025 today after concluding their six-days debate.
The voting of the proposed budget will also be held after three days of public hearing of the Finance Bill 2024 from Sunday where different stakeholders and members of public contributed their views.
The government has proposed a 11.2 per cent increase in overall government spending to 49.35tri/- in the next financial year up from 44.39tri/- in the current year.
About 70.1 per cent of the budget will be financed by domestic revenue projected to reach 34.6tri/-, where 29.4tri/- will be tax revenue and 5.2tri/- non-tax revenue.
Growth in domestic revenues will be driven by government's strengthening of revenue collection, predominantly through encouraging the formalization of informal businesses.
The government intends to allocate funds guided by its Five-Year Development Plan (2021/22-2025/26), with a majority of funds going to local elections to be held this year and general elections next year.
The big chunk of funds will also be used in servicing of government debts and rehabilitation and construction of new stadium as the country prepares to co-host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027.
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Proposed plans to empower the National Food Reserve Authority (NFRA) to import, reserve and supply sugar during shortages and extension of fuel levy to the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) used in motor vehicles were among few key areas that dominated the debate.
Key changes proposed in the budget include planned introduction of zero rate Value Added Tax (VAT) on gold supplied to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) to incentivize supply of gold, thus increase the country's foreign currency reserve and reduce shortage of US dollars.
The government has also proposed legal amendments to empower National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) to buy, stock and reserve sugar as a national food reserve and be supplied in the domestic market during shortages.
It has also proposed fuel levy extension to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) used in motor vehicles (TZS 382/ kg), Electrical motor vehicles to be subject to the registration and payment of registration fees.
The government also proposed amendment of the Export Levy Act, CAP 196 by introducing export levy at the rate of 10 per cent on Crude Sunflower Oil, Sunflower Cake and Sunflower seeds.
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It also plans to charge Tourist Business Licence fee in local currency, instead of using US dollars from the next financial year.
These proposed measures go hand in hand with the requirement of the fees to be paid for a period of 12 months from the last day of the execution of the final payment for the business licence.
The government plans also to reduce the fee of Tanzanian Tourist Business Licence which is paid by an agent of the mountain climbing from 2,000 US dollars per annum to 3m/- per annum, he said.
The Minister for Finance, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba said the measures intend to simplify the payments of tourism fees, reducing operational costs, attracting investment in the tourist industry and to comply with the requirement of Section 26 of the law establishing the Central Bank of Tanzania, which requires payments within the country to be made in local currency.
The government is also proposing Value Added Tax (VAT) exemption on importation of Video Assistant Referee equipment and accessories.
