Ndulu rejects Chadema plan, gives three options

By Al-amani Mutarubukwa, The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. The government will not cut taxes on fuel as there are alternative ways of curbing the spiralling inflation, Bank of Tanzania Governor Benno Ndulu says.Prof Ndulu rejected a suggestion put forward recently by Shadow Finance minister Zitto Kabwe.He was also reacting to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report that the year-on-year inflation rate rose for the sixth straight month to 8.6 per cent in April from eight per cent in March.

Economists have expressed fears that rising food and fuel prices, coupled with the chronic electricity shortages, will this year push the inflation rate to the double-digit levels last seen in 2009.The opposition Chadema MP had said cutting fuel taxes by half would help to bring down the high cost of living. He listed a number of ways the government could bridge the revenue deficit resulting from the move, including offloading its shares in telecom firm Airtel and NBC Bank.

But Prof Ndulu told The Citizen on Tuesday: “Cutting taxes on fuel will definitely deny the government much-needed revenue. We are currently closely monitoring global crude prices, which are currently hovering around the $100 (Sh150,000) per barrel mark…we may have to act if prices increase sharply in the next few months.”
He said increasing harvests was one way of controlling inflation. “The harvest season is approaching in many parts of the country. We expect that bumper harvests will help to reduce food prices and bring down inflation, the high fuel prices notwithstanding.”

The governor said food prices would most likely fall during the season since farmers would be releasing into the market fresh harvests and food stocks they have been holding over the months.“We also hope that the decision to release maize from the Strategic Grain Reserve to local millers at subsidised prices will help to substantially bring down maize flour prices.”

He said the central bank had done well in managing the monetary side of the economy, but added that more needed to be done to curb inflation or it would hamper economic growth.Prof Ndulu said the planned bulk importation of fuel would also help to reduce high pump prices, which are partly to blame for the rising inflation.

Contacted for comment, Energy and Water Utility Regulatory Authority director general Haruna Masebu could not state when the bulk importation of fuel would start.He said he was not so sure about the date because the regulations had not yet been gazetted, as required by law.
“We are waiting for the regulations to be put in place before we can float the tender for a coordinating agency…that will take time, but I hope everything will be accomplished in six months,” Mr Masebu said.

A University of Dar es Salaam lecturer, Dr Haji Semboja, said there was little that Tanzania could do to prevent inflation from climbing to double digits this year.“We will very soon hit double-digit inflation because of the long-standing electricity shortages and the sharp rise in crude prices in the world market,” he said.

The food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation rate rose to 9.7 per cent for the year ending April 2011 from 8.6 per cent registered in March 2011.Food and non-alcoholic beverages have a 47.8 per cent weight in Tanzania’s basket of goods used to measure inflation.

Dr Damian Gabagambi, of the Research on Poverty Alleviation (Repoa), said there was a need to constantly regulate food prices.“If we cannot have a means to regulate food prices, we shouldn’t expect to see inflation going down even after the harvest season,” he told The Citizen in a telephone interview. Tanzania’s full-year 2010 inflation rate fell to 5.5 per cent from 12.1 per cent in 2009.

High fuel and food prices have also contributed to rising inflation this year in neighbouring Kenya and Uganda.

Source: Citizen: Wednesday, 18 May 2011 23:15.

My Take
Hivi huyu jamaa anajua ugumu wa maisha unaowakumba watanzania kwa sasa hivi?
Mbona watani zetu wa jadi Kenya wamepitisha kabisa bungeni kupunguza kodi kwenye mafuta ili kupunguza makali ya maisha?

By the way hivi alishaeleza kwa nini zile noti za zamani hazitoki kwenye mzunguko? Kwa kweli kiongozi yeyote wa awamu ya nne ninamtilia mashaka.

Ndulu huwa ananiacha hoi na hayo mahesabu yake ya uchumi. Yeye Tsh ikiporomoka thamani anasema ni vizuri kwa ku-export, inflation ikipanda anategemea mazao yavunwe itashuka. Yaani huyu jamaa ni full kilaza mambo yake kutegemea miujiza ya Mungu tu. Yupo pale kama boya hamna cha maana anachofanya.

Sikubaliani hata kidogo na uuzaji wa shares za NBC na Airtel....huo utakuwa ni uhuni!!

ndulu hawezi kuwa karibu na wananchi, ameingia culture ile ile

• The harvest season of what ???? maize , coffee, cotton , fish
• Waht abut the mining season?
• and The election season
• and The job creation season
• and Power shedding season

Akili kichwani

hmethod said:

Ndulu huwa ananiacha hoi na hayo mahesabu yake ya uchumi. Yeye Tsh ikiporomoka thamani anasema ni vizuri kwa ku-export, inflation ikipanda anategemea mazao yavunwe itashuka. Yaani huyu jamaa ni full kilaza mambo yake kutegemea miujiza ya Mungu tu. Yupo pale kama boya hamna cha maana anachofanya.

Click to expand...

Sasa kama hayo ndo maelezo ya gavana walio chini yake au Maafisa mipango kwenye wizara kama za nishati ,fedha watatoa majibu gani? nadhni kuna haja ya viongozi wa JF wawe wanaweka kwenye Jukwaa la uchumi jarida la BOT lialotoka kila baada ya miezi mitatu au sita kama sikosei.

Cut spending,increase efficiency!!....anything else is bullsh*t

hmethod said:

Ndulu huwa ananiacha hoi na hayo mahesabu yake ya uchumi. Yeye Tsh ikiporomoka thamani anasema ni vizuri kwa ku-export, inflation ikipanda anategemea mazao yavunwe itashuka. Yaani huyu jamaa ni full kilaza mambo yake kutegemea miujiza ya Mungu tu. Yupo pale kama boya hamna cha maana anachofanya.

Click to expand...

Huyu gavana kwa kweli sijui anaishi nchi gani tofauti kabisa na Tanzania; anasema kuwa suluhisho la inflation ni kuagiza mafuta kwa wingi[ bulk purchase] sawa lakini ukweli ni kwamba hili suala limezungumzwa kwa muda mrefu sasa na inaelekea utekelezaji wake utachukua muda mrefu[long term solution] in the short term kupuguza kodi ya mafuta itawapunguzia wananchi ukali wa maisha unaoletwa na bei ya mafuta kuwa juu sana, hata huko kuongeza uzalishji wa mazo ya chakula sidhani kuwa kutapunguza sana bei za chakula kwani pembejeo na mbolea vyote vinaagizwa toka nje ya nchi not to mention gharama za usafirishaji wa hivyo vyakula kuwa nazo juu. In the short term suluhisho la mfumuko wa bei ni kupunguza kodi kwenye mafuta na hiyo arguement kuwa itapunguza mapato ya serikali haina nguvu kwani serikali yetu tatizo lake kubwa ni hizo tax-exemptions wanazotoa bila mpangilio na serikali yenyewe kutokuwa makini katika matumizi yake.

Wakiuza hizo shares za airtel na nbc govt itapata kiasi gani?nina uhakika 500bn haifiki!sasa si usanii huo.pia bajeti inayopitisha ilisha include shares za nbc kama income yake,hatujasikia utekelezaji tayari ndulu anajichanganya.kampuni zote za mafuta za kwao unategemea nini bei ikishuka?