Maendeleo ya kweli na yenye tija kwa wengi yanaanzia kwako wewe binafsi, ili kudhibitisha kuwa ni kweli bofya picha hii.
COST of living threats seem on the verge of a painful adjustment as hitherto difficult but tolerable levels of sugar and petroleum sector prices are left to hinge freely – depending not on market forces, but on unrealisable government revenue targets!
Already, the government has more or less tacitly admitted that its revenue collection methods are not working.
Hence, it has brought up stiff hikes in the two vital mass consumption items, where it will net more income – but at a cost that may prove burdensome and unsettling for vast sections of society.
At the same time, there are indications – as Finance Minister Saada Mkuya sought to underline – that the sugar levy hike was brought about for the purpose of assisting local industries, an argument that the outgoing government, mindful of the cost of living, studiously rejected!
Assisting local industries per se would not be the main reason despite its significant publicity effect, owing to this agenda being adopted during the previous session of the National Assembly as patriotic, etc.
A former Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Zitto Kabwe, had urged the government to "take into account the presence of the people of Kilombero, that their lives depend on the sugar industry."
The government, like the PAC members, know that this cannot be the point of departure of policy-making, as the land has value and, as such, could be put to other uses including less prevalent sugarcane farming.
In which case, the government was thinking of revenues, and picked the PAC arguments for net propaganda value, undoubtedly with electoral hindsight!
When the matter of petrol is examined, its dangers are perhaps wider than those of sugar as, in the latter case, it is even more restricted use by families that can't raise prices of anything they sell, if they have no trading opportunities for instance, or rely on a small wage, etc.
Sugar price rises via tax hikes leads to more costly hotel foods – and house upkeep, on the part of the very poor. When it comes to petrol, the port of call is unavoidably increases in costs of transport and, thus, in prices.
But, worse, the government – through its myriads of vehicles – will have to chew up more cud to ensure that the fleet is serviceable, and that means the paymasters in ministerial departments will do all they can to retain the conditions of vehicles and the privileges of their users, for instance, the amount of fuel they are entitled to per month, etc.
The nearly unavoidable result is that 'pinching' will start in the various areas where public interest work is shelved to ensure that there is enough money for less active administration – like officers using official vehicles and make some necessary (per diem yielding) travel, but increasingly fail to purchase materials or hire implementing staff, pay contractors, because the government has no money!
How far this will have been quite noticeably the case by later October – at the time of voting a new government into office – can't be affirmed.
But, if petrol-linked inflation and a sharp rise in sugar prices would have taken hold, chances would arise that it helps the political Opposition pick more electoral votes, as they have the appropriate slogans to explain what is happening! Ccm dissenters (from the main contending camp tied to the 2005 networking group that brought into office outgoing President Jakaya Kikwete) are not likely to be able to use the situation to help them beat the main candidate.
The rise in prices would at any rate hurt outgoing Premier Mizengo Pinda than his old rival for the Presidency, Edward Lowassa!
The CcM camp is picking its presidential contestant far too early to really start getting divided about the likely inflationary trend, even without an excessive effort to bang on the issue as it is hot coal opposition agenda or, some would say: propaganda!
But, as each ancestral spirit has its 'baobab tree,' a Lowassa candidacy would not find it easy to disgorge the relationship between the hard decisions the government has taken about the petroleum levy in view of the open sores in its ability to pay work it has engaged, despite the music directed at voters in rural areas that the higher taxation is strictly for the Rural Electrification Agency (REA)!
Nor can 'hard decisions' belittle the rise in sugar taxation and its possibly nefarious results on the lower level users and purchasers of its myriad related commodities, given the table-thumping that the Opposition has been doing on the issue.
Of course, the Opposition will explain away inflation not as tied to its protection standpoint – and antipathy about market competition where foreign sugar wins hands down – but as linked to how corruption hinders the government from collecting sufficient taxes and not rely on taxing popular commodities like petrol and sugar.
They would evidently focus on the taxation of natural resources, the level of royalties and government expenditure. That is: away from sugar sector economics as at present.
Siku zote bahati yako iko mikononi mwako tu, ili kudhibitisha kuwa ni kweli bofya kwenye picha iliyopo hapa chini.
Never let a problem become an excuse. Put your Problem in Proper Perspective. What is the secret ingredient of tough people that enables them to succeed? Why do they survive the tough times when others are overcome by them? Why do they win when others lose? Why do they soar when others sink? The answer is very simple. It's all in how they perceive their problems.
Share habari hii na wenzio wajue
Post a Comment