THE
national debt reached 16.16 billion US dollars, equivalent to
59.48trl/- up to 30th April this year, and remains sustainable in medium
and long term, the Deputy Minister for Finance, Dr Ashatu Kijaji has
said.
She said in Parliament yesterday that the
national debt includes public and private sector debt and the
government
is responsible to service the public debt only.
The Deputy Minister was responding to a
question from Masoud Abdallah Salim (Mtambile, CUF) who wanted to know
the level of the national debt up to the time his question was being
answered in Parliament.
The Mtambile legislator wanted also to know about details of funds set aside to service the debt.
The Deputy Minister said funds to service
public debt were being set aside through normal budgetary allocation.
She said the government set 1.262tri/- for payment of domestic debt and
685.06bn/- for external debt.
There were no money in a special fund for
servicing national debt, she added. However, according to the Central
Bank, the national debt is declining as the government continues to
honour its payment obligations.
The Central bank said in its latest
monthly economic review that the external debt, comprising public and
private sector debt, amounted to USD 20,027.7 million at the end of
April 2018, a USD 128.9 million decrease from the level registered at
the end of the preceding month.
The decrease was on account of debt
service payment and appreciation of US dollar against other currencies
in which the debt is denominated.
The Deputy Minister said the government
was servicing the public debt using domestic resources and had never
defaulted in the payments.
She said the Ministry of Finance and
Planning was conducting its activities in highest level of diligence
particularly in implementing government directive on domestic and
external debt servicing.
In his supplementary question, the
legislator asked why the government continued to borrow when the debts
levels were soaring. He wanted also to know when the government would
conduct a review on the national debt.
The Deputy Minister said the review of the national debt would be conducted from next financial year.
The Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr
Phillip Mpango said in Parliament last week that the government
conducted a public debt sustainability analysis which indicated the debt
was sustainable in medium and long term.
The Minister said the ratio of the public
debt to GDP was 34.4 per cent compared to a threshold of 56 per cent.
The value of external debt to GDP was 19.7 per cent compared to a
threshold of 40 per cent.
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