CAG: Dar’s 51tri/- debt handy

From LUDOVICK KAZOKA in Dodoma

THE Controller and Auditor General (CAG), Prof Mussa Assad has reiterated that the national debt which currently stands at 50.9tr/- is manageableProf Assad told a press conference here yesterday that the audit was able to verify the debt sustainability and that the conclusion reached by the audit was that the debt levels were manageable.

“The CAG’s Annual General Reports for the year 2016/217 remain confidential until when they will be tabled in Parliament, something the National Audit Office expects to happen before April 12,” said the CAG.
Prof Assad said the Public Debt Stock in the country stands at 46.08trllion/- as of June, 2017, saying the domestic debt stock was 13trillion/-, which is equivalent to 29 per cent. “The External Debt Stock amounted to 32.75 trillion/- which is equivalent to 71 per cent.
Therefore, the external debt stock is about 31 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” said the CAG. Speaking shortly after receiving the reports earlier this week, President John Magufuli, assured the CAG that the Tanzania’s debt level was still manageable, meaning that the country could even borrow more from local and international lenders.
Available statistics indicate that at the end of the second quarter of last year, the United States of America (USA)’s public debt to GDP ratio was at 103.8 per cent, while the level of public debt in Japan was 243.2 per cent against the GDP in 2013.
The Bretton Woods institute indicated in the report that during the period under review, China was faring well at just 22.4 per cent, while in India it was at 66.7 per cent. Others are Germany (89.1 per cent), United Kingdom (98.2 per cent) and France and Italy (135.5 per cent). In a related development,
Dr Magufuli asked Chief Justice (CJ) Prof Ibrahim Juma and Principal Judge Ferdinand Wambali to spearhead the fasttracking settlement of tax related cases worth about 4.4trl/- which remained unsolved in courts of law.