By Alex Nelson Malanga
Mbinga. Come 2050, Mbinga District desires to see itself at a point where it will reduce its reliance on the Central Government in funding its budget.
This was said a few days ago during a meeting that brought together stakeholders from all walks of life to air their views on the 2025/2050 National Development Vision.
In the current financial year, Mbinga Town Council’s own-source revenue contributes to only 10.4 percent of the aggregate annual target of Sh31.6 billion.
This suggests that Mbinga Town Council’s budget is 89.6 percent financed by the Central Government.
Speaking of Mbinga District Council, the own source revenue accounts for 17.5 percent of the aggregate annual target of Sh48.1 billion for the current fiscal year.
This tells that 82.5 percent of Mbinga District Council’s cash flow for its operations is set to be contributed by the Central Government.
Mbinga District Commissioner Hon. Kisare Matiku Makori said increasing the efficiency of the two Councils’ own-source revenue remains crucial in enhancing public service delivery.
“Harnessing and revitalising own-source revenue mobilisation opportunities remain a top priority for our two Councils to strengthen service delivery,” Hon. Makori said during the meeting that was held in Mbinga Town Council.
Mbinga Town Acting Director Stuart Kuziwa expressed the need to keep the momentum going when it comes to creating an enabling business environment.
“We need to come up with strategies that will give confidence to citizens and investors, thus creating a room for opportunities to generate revenue,” said Mr. Kuziwa.
Mbinga District Executive Director Joseph Rwiza expressed the need for devising sustainable approaches for augmenting revenue mobilisation to enhance social-economic mobilisation.
“Achieving the goal of becoming financially self-reliant will be a walk in the park, if we give more attention to increasing sustainable own-source revenue, instead of focusing on the Central Government,” said Mr. Rwiza.
Bishop John Ndimbo of Mbinga Catholic Diocese said if Mbinga’s two councils were to stand on their own feet, they needed to maximize the utilization of natural resources that they are blessed by the Almighty God.
“We need to maximize the utilization of the opportunities that we are endowed with, if we are to become financially self-reliant,” opined Bishop Ndimbo.
He cited some opportunities that the district could capitalise on as mining and tourism.
From economists’ point of view, the generation of revenue can be supported by end-to end digitization of tax administration to establish a digital one stop shop to minimize tax leaks.
Streamlining tax processes and setting up digital database can boost the approaches.
Countries such as Ghana, Benini and Peru have embraced some of these approaches to seal tax leaks at the local level.
