Omissions in national grand plan worry Members of Parliament
Members of Parliament (MPs) have reacted with cautious optimism and worries to the new National Development Plan 2017/18 that aims to transform the national economy, stressing some key sectors including agriculture were plainly omitted in the grand plan.
“There is no comprehensive plan to revive the agriculture sector which is the largest employer and contributor to the nation gross domestic product,” Innocent Bashungwa (Karagwe- CCM) told reporters shortly after the plan was released here yesterday.
The lawmaker said that limited government attention to the key sectors, agriculture and livestock will affect its plan to attain social transformation as the large population is left out.
He said the government has only indicated plans to increase budget funding to the Agriculture Development Bank; however he noted there were no clear plans towards supporting small holder farmers access agroinputs, vital to improve productivity.
“A lot more has to be done to improve processing industries if we are to focus on achieving middle income status,” he added. Another MP, Ester Bulaya (Bunda- CCM), explained that the new budget outlook of 31tri/- was very impressive but is facing huge barriers.
Citing the five-year development plan and the ending budget, the outspoken MP said the government managed to outline positive plans but at the end of the day, “it fails to implement accordingly.”
“I can assure you today, less than 50 per cent of the budget approved for 2016/17 financial year, has been released to all government ministries and their departments,” she noted. Ms Bulaya urged the government to adopt comprehensive strategies that will ensure an industrial transformation and boost the economy. Mr Andrew Chenge (Bariadi West- CCM) was optimistic that the new plan will ferry the government into a middle income.
The legal expert acknowledged a little has been done by the government on reviving agriculture sector contribution in the country. Mbozi West legislator, David Silinde (Chadema) said that the nation is still facing challenges on effective implementation of its budgets. He cited the current budget which will end on June 30, this year, noting that the government has so far disbursed only 26 per cent of the funds allocated for development budget while three months have remained to concluded the fiscal year.
"In this year’s budget, the government proposed allocation of 40 per cent of the total budget for development projects and the remaining 60 per cent for other activities but out of the 40 per cent only 26 percent has been dished out for development projects," the lawmaker said. The legislator was pessimistic that even the implementation of the proposed budget and the national development plan may not be successful because the government has failed to meet at least 35 per cent of the development budget.
Kigoma Urban MP, Zitto Kabwe (ACTWazalendo) said the implementation of the current budget will not be successful because the government has failed to access 5tri/- as concessional and commercial loans for financing various projects.
"This means that this year’s budget which is expected to end on June 30, this year, is 24.5trn/- and not 29.5tri/- as approved by the Parliament ... the budget projections are not realistic because if the government has failed to raise the 29.5tri/- how is it going to collect 31.7trn/- for the next budget," Zitto said.
Chairperson for Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, Ms Naghenjwa Kaboyoka,( Same- East -Chadema) challenged the government to find own sources of financing its budget. "It will be difficult for the country to become a middle income nation if the government will continue to rely on donors in financing development projects," she said.