PARLIAMENT MAY REJECT THE BUDGET

prof. Lipumba during one of parliament sittings

Saturday, 16 June 2012 10:20

digg By Peter Nyanje The Citizen Reporter Dodoma. Parliament may reject the 2012/12 Budget if the government does not boost the development allocation by Sh500 billion, an MP said yesterday. Mr Luhaga Mpina (Kisesa-CCM) said the Budget tabled on Thursday by Finance Minister William Mgimwa would be rejected by MPs because it did not reflect the five-year development plan which Parliament passed in June last year. “The Budget which has been tabled goes against Parliament’s resolution which requires development allocation to be not less than 35 per cent of the budget, with at least Sh2.7 trillion coming through internal sources. The Budget tabled by the Finance minister is not consistent with the five-year development plan,” said Mr Mpina adding: “The decision by the government to set aside Sh2.2 trillion instead of Sh2.7 trillion from local collections for development shows a shortage of Sh500 billion and this will impede the implementation of many projects. “Worse still, while we fail to allocate more for development, local revenue has increased by Sh1.5 trillion, recurrent expenditure has also increased by Sh1.9 trillion while the development kitty has decreased by Sh397.8 billion. This shows that the government is not committed to implementing the development plan.” Mr Mpina said the development plan set three conditions which the government agreed to meet in its annual budgets, including making sure that the allocation for development was not less than 35 per cent of the entire budget. The lawmaker added that the development plan requires the government to set aside Sh2.7 trillion each year from local collections for financing development expenditures. But Mr Mpina, who is a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Economy, said the Budget tabled on Thursday did not follow those guidelines. According to the development plan, whose copy has been obtained by The Citizen on Saturday, the government has committed itself to setting a minimum threshold of Sh2.7 trillion from local revenue collections for development expenditure. The blueprint also indicates that the share of development expenditure in the entire budget should not be less than 35 per cent.  “This means that the budget which was tabled by the Finance minister on Thursday does not tally with the plans which we said should be strictly followed… therefore I don’t support it. “There are many other MPs, including members of the Finance and Economy committee who do not also approve of  the Budget and the government risks it being shot down should it not agree to include the changes I am proposing,” said Mr Mpina. He also revealed that during the last meeting, the committee, after failing to convince Dr Mgimwa to revise the budget, told him that he would table the budget on his own risk. “After we failed to convince him to change the budget the committee told him that if he tables the budget the way it is he will have to defend himself in Parliament,” he said. Mr Mpina said committee members rejected Dr Mgimwa’s budget because development expenditure had been allocated only Sh4.5 trillion, equivalent to 35 per cent, adding that this did not reflect the requirements of the development plan. He said there were many MPs who supported his cause to reject the budget and he would not buy into the system of supporting the budget simply because he was from the ruling CCM. “Even if they (CCM) decide to sack me because I have gone against the party stand I am ready to face the consequences whatever the cost,” he said. Mr Mpina showed how the government could raise the Sh500 billion without the need to overhaul the entire budget noting that there were a lot of areas in recurrent expenditure which have been allocated “a lot of money unnecessarily”.