DODOMA: THE value of public investment stood at 73.36tri/- as of 2021/22 financial year, of which 70.8tri/- is invested in corporations that the government owns 51 per cent shares, the National Assembly was told.
In return, the government has earned 850bn/- on the investments as profit from these investments, Chairman of Public Investment Committee (PIC), Mr Deus Sangu, revealed on Wednesday He gave the statistics in Parliament when tabling the committee’s report in the period of February 2023 and January 2024.
The National Assembly also called upon the government to fast track the finalisation of the Public Entities Investment Bill 2023 for more efficiency and productivity of the institutions.
He said the bill, once becomes law, will obligate public entities to execute profit-oriented projects that will lead to issuance of dividends to the government.
The Parliament also wanted the Treasury Registrar to make close supervision of the state-owned public entities so that they deliver according to desired goals as it has come to their attention that some entities go against their investment plans.
Moreover, he said, delays in Value Added Tax (VAT) Refunds by the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) have for the past two consecutive financial years affected operations by public-owned entities.
Mr Sangu said that among the most affected public entities are STAMIGOLD which claims 12.30bn/-. The other entities are the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC)’s subsidiary company, GASCO, which claims 3.01bn/- and the Electrical Transmission and Distributions Constructions and Maintenance Company Limited (ETDCO) claims 563mn/-.
The three companies claim the total VAT refund worth 15.9bn/- for the past two financial years has negatively affected the working capital of the companies and therefore deny the government revenues collected through tax and dividends.
He asserted that the Committee has learnt that STAMIGOLD is operating under a negative capital valued at 11.7bn/- and urged TRA to fast-track the refunds so as to stabilise liquidity of the companies.
According to him, the Value Added Tax Act, 2014 mandates that TRA refunds taxpayers including the business community within the space of between three months and twelve months after filing refund claims.
The committee also learned that ETDCO, the subsidiary company of the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) was established in December 2014 for the purpose of administering the establishment of factories for production of concrete poles but has not started the production because there isn’t budget allocation.
