Africa-Press – Tanzania. AS the public awaits government decision on newly- imposed mobile money transaction levies, President Samia Suluhu Hassan has endorsed review of the charges.
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Friday that the Head of State has already approved the review of the charges, noting that the new rates will be unveiled by end of this month.
The Premier announced the new development in Mpanda District yesterday, during his three-day working tour of Katavi Region.
The PM reiterated the importance of enhancing domestic sources of revenues to enable the government to implement development projects, stressing that no single cent collected will be misused.
By Friday, last week the government had already collected 48.4bn/- from the mobile money transaction charges, introduced mid last month with 22.5bn/- disbursed to the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PORALG) for the construction of 90 health centres.
Speaking yesterday, Prime Minister Majaliwa said a total of 250m/- has been distributed to each project to be implemented in the needy Local Government Authorities (LGAs) for the commencement of the projects that aims at improving provision of health services in remote areas.
He assured that the government would supervise the spending of the money for it to deliver the intended purpose, and that no single cent would be embezzled.
The PM said the government is implementing a strategy that will provide LGAs with enough health centres, as part of its continued efforts to upgrade health services delivery across the country.
“The government would ensure in every six to seven dispensaries there is a health centre that will be used as a referral to patients and the facilities are equipped with all needed services such as maternity wards, theatre, outpatient buildings,” he said.
“All this is done in line with the vision of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s determination of providing better health services to all Tanzanians,” added the PM.
Last week, the Minister for Finance and Planning Dr Mwigulu Nchemba said an addition of 15bn/- had also been transferred to PORALG for construction of 60 other health centres, making a total of 150 facilities to be built from the collected levies.
Some 7bn/- will be transferred to PORALG to finance construction of 560 classrooms.
The construction of the classrooms will help to accommodate an increased number of pupils and students in primary and secondary schools in the next academic year.
For the part of Zanzibar, Dr Nchemba said from July 15 to yesterday, the Indian Ocean semi-autonomous archipelagos had collected 1.66bn/-, noting the money would also be channeled to serve the intended purpose.
In June, the government amended the Electronic and Postal Communication Act (CAP 306) by imposing a ‘patriotic levy’ on all mobile money transactions, depending on the amount sent and withdrawn.
It expects to raise 1.254tri/- from the levies to finance the 36.68tri/- budget for the 2021/22 financial year, with the government targeting to inject more funds towards financing rural development projects and improve social service delivery.
But new charges sparked outrage from citizens over rising costs of financial transactions. The government pledged to work on the public concern with President Samia directing responsible ministers to address the challenge.
In another development, Premier Majaliwa yesterday expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of construction of the Katavi regional hospital.
He therefore instructed the site to be supervised by the office of the Regional Commissioner and assessed by the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children.
He said the 688m/- that the government had issued for the project, should be handed over to the office of the Regional Commissioner, and that the Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS) should form a construction committee.
“Other regions have managed to complete huge projects by using the same budget, a good example is in Musoma municipality, Mara region where there was a construction of a Zonal referral hospital,” he said.
For his part the Deputy Minister for Health Dr Godwin Mollel said the ministry would implement all the directives issued by Prime Minister.
