The national identity cards’ project is expected to boost government revenue collection tremendously, because after its completion the number of registered tax payers will leap from 1.57 million at present to 12 million.
The project will also help the government to get rid of ghost workers in its pay rolls, identify students who deserve loans in institutions of higher learning, bolster security and identify registered voters.
The Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Shamsi Vuai Nahodha, told the National Assembly here yesterday when presenting his ministry’s budget estimates for the 2011/12 financial year that the five-year project would cost 355bn/-.
Mr Nahodha said preparations for the project were underway and identity cards (IDs) would be issued to at least 25 million Tanzanians. “The National Identity Cards Authority will set up offices in all districts on Tanzania mainland except Ilala and Kinondoni,” he said.He also said that the government has entered into a contract with a Malaysia firm, IRIS Corporation Behard, to execute the project. The agreement was signed in April, this year.
Mr Nahodha also said IDs would start to be issued towards the end of this year to citizens aged above 18 years and foreigners resident in Tanzania. The minister asked the National Assembly to approve 482,394,883,000/- expenditure for the ministry during the 2011/12 financial year.Meanwhile, the government said yesterday that the country is enjoying relative peace, but expressed concern over the tendency by some opposition political leaders of inciting public unrest. Mr Nahodha said some political leaders have been causing unrest by organising mass demonstrations after the 2010 General Elections.
“There are some political leaders who have been organising demonstration and public rallies on a regular basis after the general elections,” he said.He said that although on one hand the leaders have the right to stage demonstrations and public rallies, they, on the other hand, it was unfair to use people’s valuable time which could have otherwise been spent on more productive activities.
Mr Nahodha further expressed concern that it was the same leaders who claimed that Tanzanians lived in abject poverty, but who convinced people to attend unproductive rallies and demonstrations.“If the time spent on organizing rallies and demos was used on matters that could have improved the welfare of Tanzanians surely would have helped in reducing poverty in the country,” he said.
Presenting his ministry’s budget estimates for 2011/2012, Mr Nahodha also said that the government plans to reduce congestion in prisons by 20 per cent during the 2011/12 financial year.“Between July 2010 and April 2011, some 154 prisoners were released on parole,” he said. The minister also said that between July 2010 and April 557 people were arrested in possession of 529 kilogrammes of illicit drugs and 507 suspects caught with 17,000 kilogrammes of marijuana and 5,316 kilogrammes of khat.
No comments:
Post a Comment