By Jacob Mosenda & Sharon Sauwa
Summary
· Legislators say the government should review the taxes to compliment efforts by the ministry of Agriculture to boost production as well as protect consumers
Dar/Dodoma. Two key issues stole the show in the ongoing budget debate
in Parliament yesterday as lawmakers sought to fine-tune the government’s
Sh44.4 trillion revenue and expenditure plan for the fiscal year 2023/24.
The debate, which started on Monday
this week after the presentation of the budget in the House on Thursday last
week, saw the Members of Parliament focus much of their attention on the
proposed duty remission at the rate of 10 percent instead of 35 percent on
imported wheat grain for one year.
Presenting the budget in Parliament
last week, the Finance and Planning minister, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba, had proposed
to continue to grant a duty remission at a duty rate of 10 percent instead of
35 percent on imported wheat grain for one year.
This, he said, was meant to reduce
the cost of production for processors of wheat flour in the country and relieve
citizens from the high prices of wheat products.
He also proposed to grant a stay of
application of the East African Community Common External Tariff (EAC-CET) of
zero percent and apply a duty rate of 10 percent for one year on crude
vegetable oils of soya beans, groundnuts, coconuts, mustard, and linseed in an
effort to align with sunflower, cotton, and other crude oils that attract 10
percent so as to promote domestic production of vegetable oils.
Also, he said the government will
continue to grant stay of application of the EAC CET rate of 35 percent and
apply a duty rate of 25 percent or $500/MT, whichever is higher, for one year
on refined vegetable oils in an effort to protect and promote the processing of
vegetable oils in the country using locally grown seeds and imported crude palm
oil, as well as employment creation.
In parliament, the discussion was
heated as MPs tried to protect the interests of local farmers and end
consumers.
Contributing to the debate, Singida
East Member of Parliament, Mr Miraji Mtaturu (CCM), said that the government
had decided to come up with a strategy through the Ministry of Agriculture to
produce seeds in order to save a lot of money that was being used to import cooking
oil.
“We brought the seeds, the people
were empowered, and as we speak, people have harvested enough; the price of a
bag of sunflowers has now dropped, and my people are now complaining and asking
the government to help them get profit,” he said.
He said in the budget, the
government plans to reduce the tax on refined oil by 25 percent instead of 35
percent, the latter of which they thought would be the one to be considered.
He asked the Ministry of Finance to
help the Ministry of Agriculture’s efforts by returning 35 percent of the tax
to cooking oil to help reduce importations.
Member of Parliament for Mafinga,
Cosato Chumi (CCM), asked the government, in matters to do with wheat and
cooking oil, to issue permits to the processors of wheat.
“I listened to the minister of
finance say, ... ‘the move would increase prices’. Even when the tax was at
zero, the price of oil did not decrease, and thus the end consumer did not
benefit,” he said.
Regarding wheat, Mr Festo Sanga, a
lawmaker for Makete constituency (CCM), suggested that the Minister of Finance
ignore the proposals to lower the tax on imported wheat from 35 percent to 10
percent to sustain local industries.
Arusha Urban legislator, Mr Mrisho
Gambo demanded that the government review the cost of mobile data bundles that
were a burden to the citizens.
He said in 2020, if one bought a
Sh15,000 data bundle, one got 10GB; today, for that amount of money, some
telecoms offer 7.38GB, while others offer 7.2GB and others 7.2GB.
He said the companies have not
increased the price, but they have reduced the data bundle.
No comments :
Post a Comment