{FOUR recently-appointed cabinet ministers and one deputy minister were swornin by President John Magufuli at the State House in Dar Salaam yesterday; promising to work tirelessly towards building a strong economy and making Tanzania attain a middle-income country status by 2025.}
Speaking to reporters shortly after the swearing in ceremony, the Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Phillip Mpango, said the focus is to strengthen revenue collection systems to ensure everyone pays respective taxes and build a strong economy based on industries.
“The government’s revenue collection target for this month’s is 1.3 trillion/-. Before Christmas, we were in a very good position,” Dr Mpango noted, adding that with increased industries in the country, the government will have a wider revenue collection base.
“For instance, if we had more breweries in the country, we would be able to collect more revenue than it is the case at present when we just have a few, forcing the government to increase the amount of taxes on products from the few breweries we have each financial year,” he explained.
Dr Mpango noted that with an improved revenue collection system that is friendly to traders, coupled with a nurtured culturesyste.”of local people paying respective taxes, the nation will be able to move from a national budget that depends on donors to one that depends on local revenue.
He said it is embarrassing for a country to frequently go ‘begging’ for national budget support in developed countries, stressing that it is possible for Tanzania to have a domesticdependant budget if every Tanzanian would take his/her responsibility to the government seriously, including paying appropriate revenue. “It is paramount then that Tanzanians should build a culture of paying relevant revenues on time without being forced.
We will also remove irrelevant taxes from small traders such as food vendors, which are a burden to them,” he pledged. He commended the Central Bank, under its governor, Professor Benno Ndulu, for the superb supervision of the country’s financial markets, noting that the focus will now be to decrease interest rates so that many people can afford to get loans. He urged Tanzanians to nurture a culture of saving money in microfinance institutions such as SACCOS and ViCOBA.
Before he was appointed Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Mpango was the Acting Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Commissioner General, having moved from the Planning Commission where he was the Executive Secretary.
The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Professor Jumanne Maghembe, said he will focus on the antipoaching campaign to end poaching of wild animals, increase efforts on forest conservation and boost foreign tourism to 3 million from the current 1.2 million in tourist numbers.
Prof Maghembe said cutting down of trees and burning wood for charcoal-making purposes will be regulated to protect forests in the country, adding that those exporting logs outside the country will be punished in accordance with the law. “Poachers should look for legal jobs because this is the end of poaching of wild animals in the country…this also goes to those exporting logs… we will bring them to book,” he added.
Prof Maghembe bounced back from the Fourth Phase Government, where he was the Minister for Water. The newly-appointed Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Dr Joyce Ndalichako, said her focus will be to improve the quality of education, improve infrastructures in schools.
Dr Ndalichako said she will follow up and revive special secondary schools, which have lost their reputation in the country. “My focus is to improve the quality of education and ensure graduates meet all the requirements in the job markets within and outside the country. We will also ensure there is infrastructure that is friendly to pupils and students,” she explained.
Dr Ndalichako loathes seeing pupils sitting down in classrooms and schools that do not have pit latrines, wondering how such children will become science experts when they are faced with such challenges.
Dr Ndalichako was formerly the Executive Secretary of the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA). During her tenure at the NECTA leakage of exams was put to halt. On his part, the Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, Prof Makame Mbarawa, said the ministry’s strategy would be to link all regional and district headquarters with tarmac roads to help the government attain the 2025 Vision of becoming a middle-income country.
He said there were road projects amounting to about 3,000 kilometers, which are on the various stages of construction, noting that he will ensure they are completed on time. Construction of the other 4,600 kilometres of roads is expected to start soon. Speaking on the government’s intention to build a standard gauge railway line, Prof Mbarawa said the project will begin any time from now.
He noted that there were a lot of opportunities in the transport sector, which if put to good use, will help the government realise its vision of becoming a middle-income country by 2025. Others who were sworn in yesterday include the Minister for Water and Irrigation, Engineer Gerson Lwenge, and the Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Hamad Yusuf Masauni,
The ceremony was also attended by the Vice-President, Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan, the Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, the Chief Secretary, Ambassador Ombeni Sefue, and the Attorney General, Mr George Masaju.
Source:Daily News:[New ministers extol prosperitysyste.”->http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/home-news/45512-new-ministers-extol-prosperitysyste]
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