10 December 2010

Donors to Tanzania weigh in on budget problems

Svein Baera, an official at the Norwegian embassy in Dar es Salaam and a representative of major donors to the Tanzanian national government, spoke on 6 December 2010 at the National Policy Dialogue meeting in Dar es Salaam. He blamed the government's budget problems during the current 2010/11 fiscal year on overly optimistic revenue forecasts, excessive expenditures, and a failure to prioritize expenditures in advance should revenues fail to meet expectations. He claimed that the government deliberately avoided talking with donors, which "calls into question the quality of our policy dialogue and partnership." The Tanzanian minister for finance and economic affairs, Mustafa Mkulo, declined to respond.

Roughly 36 percent of Tanzania's revenues are provided by donors. Those who are represented by Norway are expected to provide U.S.$534 million to Tanzania during this fiscal year, which is a decrease of U.S.$220 million from the previous fiscal year.

Donors encouraged the Tanzanian government to reduce tax exemptions so that they are more consistent with those granted in other countries. The exemptions for fiscal year 2009/10 were equal to 2.3 percent of gross domestic product, compared to 1.0 percent in Kenya and 0.4 percent in Uganda.

Source: "Donors - Why Dar es Salaam Suffers Huge Deficit," The Citizen, Dar es Salaam, 7 December 2010, http://allafrica.com/stories/201012070234.html

No comments:

Post a Comment