DODOMA: GOVERNMENT’S plan for the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) to import sugar, stock it as food reserve and supply it in the domestic market during shortages will compromise its ability to buy other crops, Parliament Committee on Budget has said.
Presenting the committee’s views of the 2024/25 budget in Parliament yesterday, the chairperson, Oran Njenza said the NFRA had no financial means to import sugar for the time being and it may be attracted to use its available resources to import the commodity at the expense of other crops.
“The Committee recognizes the good intention of the government to make sure sugar is available all the time. However, this plan will have negative impact on its ability to buy grains from the farmers such as maize, sorghum, beans and rice. This negative impact comes from the fact that for the time being NFRA has no financial means of importing sugar and stock it,” he said.
NFRA was established to guarantee national food security in times of food shortage through procuring, reserving and releasing food stocks to address disasters, recycling and releasing food stocks in the market in order to stabilize food supply and marketing food commodities and generating revenue.
The government has proposed amendment of laws to empower National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) to buy sugar as a national food reserve to be supplied in the domestic market during shortages.
Tabling the 49.35trn/- national budget for the 2024/25 financial year in the National Assembly on Thursday, Minister for Finance, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba said the measure is intended to ensure constant availability of sugar in the market and address hoardings by manufacturers without compromising protection of local industries.
He said for 274bn/- capital of the agency, 10bn/- only comes from the government and the rest comes from bank loans.
As the government plans to set aside 36.26bn/- for the agency in the 2024/25 budget, equivalent to an increase of 26.26bn/- compared to the current budget for grain procurement and import sugar, it was clear the plan would be impactful to its ability to buy grains from farmers because it would have to lower the amount of money set for buying grains from farmers to buy US dollars for importing sugar, he said.
“It is clear the plan will impact on the ability of the agency to buy grains from farmers because it will have to lower the amount of money set for buying grains from farmers to buy US dollars for importing sugar,” he said.
The committee also advised the government to involve the private sector in the construction of the national fibre optic cable network through Public Private Partnership (PPP).
It said it has analyzed and found that the slow speed of the implementation of the project is due to relying on government funds only without involving the private sector.
The committee said inviting the private sector through PPP would expedite construction of the network named as the National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB) and ease the burden on the government budget.
It said construction of the fiber optic network started in 2009 and until yesterday it was yet complete.
The government allocated 80bn/- in the 2023/24 budget for the construction of the network and plans to set aside 80.7bn/- continuing with the construction.
“Considering the financial needs to complete the construction, it is clear that the allocated funds are little and so it will take a long time to complete the construction,” Mr Njenza said.