THE 2016/17 budget session resumes here to Monday with Members of Parliament (MPs) expected to receive the highly awaited report of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG), Prof. Mussa Assad.
Finance and Planning Minister Dr Philip
Mpango had earlier been set to table the report in Parliament on April
22, this year, but the session was rescheduled due to unavoidable
circumstances.
In his report presented before the
Parliament in May last year, the CAG unveiled several shortcomings which
denied the government a lot of revenue, including unresolved tax
appeals on cases worth over 1.7tr/-.
Such cases, according to the CAG, were
pending before Tax Revenue Appeals Board and Tax Revenue Appeals
Tribunal and Court of Appeal of Tanzania. He called on speedy disposal
of the cases.
On tax exemptions, Prof. Assad noted
weaknesses on misuse of tax exemptions granted, in particular for mining
companies on fuel, for example, causing the government to suffer
22.33bn/-loss.
The CAG discovered a sum of 32.74b/-
that was withheld under revenue retention scheme in the Central
Government and other government institutions, thus affecting completion
of planned duties.
Prof Assad also discovered non-use of
electronic receipts dispensed by EFDs on 4.4bn/- payments from different
private business people and 4.6bn/- on samples from 22 local government
authorities.
He pointed out that the TRA imposed a
total fine of 440.8m/- on various businessmen who refused to use the EFD
electronic machines, but only 72m/-, was realized, leaving a balance of
369m/-.
The CAG further noted a drop of
government investments on companies where it has shares, warning that
such trend could lead to dilution of shares.
Such companies include the National Bank
of Commence (NBC) Limited, Air Tanzania Limited (ATCL), Tanzania and
Zambia Railways (Tazara) and Tanzania Railways Limited (TRL).
The tabling of the report in question
will go alongside the debate by the MPs on the Prime Minister’s budget
estimates for his office presented before the august House last week. In
his maiden budget, Premier Kassim Majaliwa outlined several key
priority areas that would help realize the goals set by the Fifth Phase
Government, notably improved economy and social services.
He requested the Parliament to approve
236.8bn/- for the 2016/17 financial year, out of which 71.6bn/- is for
recurrent expenditure and 165.2bn/- is for development spending. The
timetable shows that after the approval of the Prime Minister’s budget
estimates, the President’s Office would follow.
Under President’s Office, the Regional
Administration and Local Government budget would be discussed for three
days, while that of Public Service and Good Governance will be discussed
for one day.
The timetable shows that presentation of
budget estimates for the ministries is expected to be concluded on June
2. This will allow the government and Budget Committee to incorporate
issues of national interests unveiled by the MPs during discussion of
budgets estimates of other ministries.
Such session would take six days from
June 3 to 8, before the Minister for Finance and Planning presents the
main government budget on June 9. The MPs will discuss the budget for
seven days starting June 13.
Thereafter, there would be presentation
and discussions of Finance and Appropriation Bills, 2016 starting on
June 21 and the Prime Minister is expected to adjourn the budget
marathon session on July 1
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