The Tanzanian finance minister on Thursday unveiled the country's government spending bracket for fiscal year 2006/2007 which is slightly higher than the estimates made by most local economists.

Zakia Hamdani Meghji, the country's first woman finance minister to have ever presented a budgetary report to the parliament, projected that government spendings will total 4.85 trillion Tanzanian shillings (3.88 billion U.S. dollars) for the fiscal year 2006/2007 starting on July 1.

It was the sixth time for the three member states of the East African Community to unveil their budget simultaneously.

Finance ministers from Kenya and Uganda also presented their budgetary reports to their respective parliaments on Thursday.

Of the total expenditure, Tanzania expects to get almost 46 percent from external concessional loans, grants and debt reliefs while the remainder comes from domestic sources.

The Tanzanian minister sorted out agriculture, infrastructure and defense as priority areas for government spendings but she did not elaborate on the percentage of the money to be channeled to agricultural development.

"The agricultural sector, recognized as the leading sector capable of generating economic growth and employment, is allocated a reasonable share of the budget," minister Meghji only told lawmakers.

Agriculture, together with mining and tourism, is Tanzania's main driver of economy for now.

Sources close to parliamentarians, however, disclosed that both the minister and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete had to debrief lawmakers from both the ruling party and the opposition parties prior to the presentation of the budgetary report about the difference of government spendings on agriculture and national defense and security.

Some parliamentarians have aired discontent on the higher spending on defense than on agriculture. The percentage of spending on defense was not revealed either.

To the relief of most electricity consumers in Tanzania, the finance minister pinpointed the increase of spending on the energy sector, especially the purchase of natural gas-fired turbines to generate more power to make up for the loss that caused the nationwide power rationing.

Drought has caused the water levels at most of the country's hydropower reservoirs to drop below minimum required levels for electricity generation.

Source: Xinhua