budget meeting starts today.

The 16th meeting of the National Assembly and budget session for 2009/10 starts here this morning, and is scheduled to end on July 31.
Parliament Principal Information Officer Ernest Zulu said yesterday The Executive Agencies (Amendment) Bill, 2009) would be read for the first time.
He said President Jakaya Kikwete would also speak to elders and MPs later in the day.

Zulu said the budget would be tabled on Thursday afternoon and shortly thereafter, Parliament would be adjourned.
Unlike the norm where legislators broke off until Monday, this time round the house would resume business on Friday and start the budget debate on Monday, he said.

“Members of Parliament will start debate on the budget speech from next Monday to next Wednesday,” said Zulu.
Zulu said estimates for various ministries, starting with the Prime Minister’s Office would be debated during the second week of the House's longest session, just after the main budget had been endorsed.

The government would issue treasury notes on reports of the permanent parliamentary committees, including Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Local Authorities Accounts Committee (LAAC) and the Public Organisations Committee (POC) in the third week of the session, he said.

The House would select a representative to Southern Africa Development Community-Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF) on July 31 before its adjournment.

Zulu said that following an agreement by East African Community parliaments, Tanzania’s budget would be read simultaneously with presentation of the Kenyan and Ugandan annual financial estimates.

“The budget will be read simultaneously with those of other East African countries of Uganda and Kenya, and also probably of Rwanda and Burundi,” he said.

The government plans to use 9.51tn/- (USD7.3bn) in the coming fiscal year budget, about 32 per cent up from last year’s.
Only 29 per cent of the budget will be devoted to development, a 4 per cent cut from last year’s allotment.

In 2008/09, the government budget was 7.2tn/-, with 2.4tn/-, or 33per cent, allocated for development expenditure, mainly in infrastructural projects, poverty reduction and human resource development investment.

Even with this year’s massive 9.51tn/- budget, only 2.2tn/- has been alloted for development expenditure, marking a decrease not only in the portion of the budget that the sector takes up, but also in the actual value of that portion.

As the government cuts down on development expenditure, it has noticeably upped its recurrent expenditure, by 1.99tn/- to 6.69tn/- or 42 per cent of the budget.