DAR ES SALAAM, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The government of Tanzania plans to spend 34.88 trillion Tanzanian shillings (about 15.14 billion U.S. dollars) in the 2020/2021 financial year that starts on July 1, the east African nation's Minister for Finance and Planning Philip Mpango said on Wednesday.
The budget for the 2020/2021 financial year was up from 33.1 trillion shillings that was spent in the 2019/2020 fiscal year for recurrent and development expenditure.
Presenting the National Development Plan and the budget ceiling for 2020/2021 to Members of Parliament in the capital Dodoma, Mpango said out of the 15.14 billion dollars budget, 9.5 billion dollars will be allocated for recurrent expenses and 5.6 billion dollars for development expenditure.
He told the House that 78.8 percent of the development budget will be sourced domestically and the remaining 21.2 percent will be sourced from development partners and international financial institutions.
"Part of the budget will be spent on running the 2020 general elections," said Mpango without revealing the amount of budget planned for the polls to be conducted in October.
He said the 2020/2021 financial year budget focused on pushing ahead President John Magufuli administration's agenda of putting up an industrial economy and poverty reduction.
Like the previous budget that ends on June 30, this year's budget will be spent improving infrastructure, including railways, roads and rural electrification, he said.
Mpango said most of the budget in the 2019/2020 financial year was spent on implementation of various projects, including the standard gauge railway, the Rufiji hydropower project, improvement of Air Tanzania Company Limited and expansion of ports and airports.
The minister mentioned other projects as rural water supply, health, education, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, mining, roads, bridges and industrial development.
Mpango will table a final budget to parliament in June.
