Tanzania's government has committed to revising the Medium-Term Plan and Budget Preparation Guidelines covering 2026/27 to 2028/29, after lawmakers submitted recommendations during a parliamentary debate in Dodoma. Finance Minister Ambassador Khamis Mussa Omar made the pledge while closing the debate on the proposed guidelines, according to Daily News. He said the government would examine the proposals from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Budget and from MPs, then set out both immediate and longer-term plans for putting them into practice.
Why it matters
The guidelines shape how ministries, departments and agencies draw up their budgets and development plans over the next three financial years. Adjusting them in response to parliamentary scrutiny signals that the government intends to tighten control over public money, according to Daily News. The review touches on how the state raises revenue, manages debt, runs development projects and works with private investors — areas that determine whether budgeted plans are actually delivered.
Seven areas at the centre of the debate
Ambassador Omar said lawmakers' contributions concentrated on seven topics, Daily News reports. These were: keeping a lid on government spending; improving how public institutions collect revenue; managing and funding development projects; handling and repaying debt; applying technology to revenue collection and public spending; reinforcing discipline in public financial management; and selecting and delivering projects through public-private partnerships.
The minister told Parliament that the government had received all the advice and recommendations put forward by the budget committee and by members. He said these would be analysed before strategies are drawn up to implement them.
Changes planned for public-private partnerships
On partnerships between the state and private investors, Ambassador Omar said the government is working to improve the conditions for delivering such projects. He said the Public-Private Partnership Act, Cap 103, is being amended to deal with problems that arise when projects are prepared and carried out, and with delays in settling the terms of partnership contracts.
The government will also keep supervising how plan and budget directives are applied, he said, so that difficulties in identifying and preparing partnership projects can be addressed. The aim, according to the minister, is to develop projects that meet what private investors need and that can stand on their own commercially — described in the report as bankable projects.
Ambassador Omar said 10 partnership projects worth a combined 8.6 trillion shillings had reached the implementation stage in the 2026/27 financial year, Daily News reports.
What to watch
The test will be how quickly the government turns the MPs' recommendations into revised guidelines, and whether the promised amendments to the partnership law reach Parliament.
