Bunge committee pushes for timely disbursement of budget funds

THE Parliamentary Committee on Investment, Industry and Trade has urged the government to complete disbursement of funds approved for the ministry to allow it carry out activities planned for the current financial year.

The committee Deputy Chairperson, Ms Mariam Mzuzuri said that in 2022/2023 financial year, the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade was allocated a total of

30,796,819,000/- for implementing development projects.

She said so far the ministry has received a total of 10,690,507,250.01/-, which is only 35.2 per cent of the allocated funds.

Ms Mzuzuri said the committee’s opinion is that the government should increase funds for development projects, so that they can carry out the planned activities.

The MP further said that in order to implement the CCM election manifesto, it is important for the government to continue building an integrated, connected, competitive

industrial economy, by using local raw materials and modern technology that meets the needs of the domestic and foreign markets.

“Industrial development will be achieved only if proper crop research, marketing and investment are conducted. That is why the committee continues to advise the government to allocate enough funds in order to implement development projects which will in turn increase efficiency and achieve the intended productivity,” she said.

The legislator further said that although the government has continued to increase the

Ministry’s budget, still the committee considers that this amount is too small to carry out its activities fully.

She mentioned the exercise of paying compensation to people who paved way for the Liganga and Mchuchuma projects, saying it has taken a long time to implement.

The MP said that the government should ensure all citizens whose land was taken are compensated immediately according to the value of their land.

She, however proposed that the government should ensure that the investors in the projects return the compensation money paid by the governments when they start implementation of the project according to the agreement.

She said that on implementation of the Blue Economy, there is a challenge because Tanzania has not put enough emphasis on crops from seas, rivers, lakes and ponds.

“To make sure we succeed in this endeavour, the government should build fish processing factories and fish food production in the country and establish effective strategies

for selling fish abroad and control the influx of imported fish in the country,” she said.