Promises delivered. That was President John Magufuli's key message as he dissolved the 11th Parliament yesterday in Dodoma.
In a speech that took almost 2:15hrs, Dr. Magufuli outlined tremendous achievements that have been recorded in the fifthphase Government's first term, ranging from economic to social developments.
The Head of State mentioned among great achievements as Tanzanians remaining united in spite of their disparities in religions, tribes, colours and political affiliations.
"Our Union has also remained intact as we have been able to address several union challenges and reached a consensus. Challenges addressed include reducing cargo landing fee, removal of Value Added Tax... We have succeeded to protect our peace and Tanzania has remained an Island of peace," he said.
Dr. Magufuli reminded the MPs and the Nation at large that when the fifth phase Government took the power in 2015 there were occurrences of several armed robberies, but due to great job by security organs the country is safe.
To prove this, the Global Peace Index has cited Tanzania as the most peaceful nation in the East African region and placed it at seventh position in the list of peaceful countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
"When I inaugurated this Parliament on 20th November, 2015, I expressed my dissatisfaction on revenues collection... In the past five years we have made efforts in dealing with this by strengthening collection systems starting with officials entrusted with this job, strengthening taxation laws, technology, expanding tax base, combating tax loopholes and others," he stated.
"Due to those steps taken, revenues collection improved, for instance, the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) managed to raise monthly collection from 850bn/- in 2015 to 1.3tri/-," revealed Dr. Magufuli.
According to President Magufuli, last December the taxman hit a record high by collecting 1.98tri/-, the highest amount ever in our country's history.
Speaking about non-tax revenues, the President said the amount went up from less than 688.7bn/- in 2015 to 2.4tri/- in 2018/19.
Likewise, councils' revenues have gone up from 404.6bn/- to 661bn/- in 2014/15 and 2018/19 respectively, thus making domestic revenues collection to shoot up from 11tri/- in 2014/15 to 18.5tri/- in the 2018/19 fiscal year.
Efforts to raise revenues collection went in line with strengthened measures to control unnecessary spending as the Government resorted to, among others, impose restrictions on foreign trips for public officials, seminars, workshops and proper management of public procurement.
"These initiatives aimed at increasing efficiency and income as well as cutting unnecessary spending and operation cost," Dr. Magufuli pointed out.
The move contributed to beefing up the development budget from an average of 26 per cent in the past five years to 40 per cent currently, the Head of State explained.
On social services, the Government has increased accessibility of social services such as education, health and water.
On Education, the Government introduced free education from primary to secondary education and has spent over 1tri/- to finance the programme as of last February.
Since the number of students enrolled in schools increased following the free education policy, the Government had to construct new classrooms, a move which saw the number of primary schools increasing from 16,896 in 2015 to 17804 and secondary schools going up from 4708 in 2015 to 5330 currently.
"We have significantly reduced the shortage of desks in schools as the number of desks increased from 3.2 million to 8.9 million, this is a 200 per cent increase," he stated.
The President further stated that his Government has in the past five years managed to construct 40 new vocational colleges in the country, from 672 in 2015 to 712 currently.
Dr. Magufuli stated that the Government has also increased the budget for the Higher Education Loans Board (HESLB) from 347bn/- in 2014/15 to 450bn/- in 2019/20.
On the Health sector, the President said the number of health facilities has increased by 1,769. There are 1,198 new dispensaries, 71 district hospitals, and 10 regional hospitals.
"We have also improved the annual budget for the medicines and purchased 117 new ambulances," he explained.
With improvement in the Health sector, the country has largely reduced referrals of patients to hospitals abroad. "We have delivered on our promises... We'll go on to accomplish even bigger achievements if you put us back into the office," said Dr. Magufuli.
In his four years of presidency, water availability in rural areas has increased from 46 per cent to 65 per cent and in urban areas the figure went up to over 80 per cent from 65 per cent.
President Magufuli's Government also sped up investments in strategic projects, and has so far injected 126.8trn/- towards implementing various development projects that target to improve the social and economic status of the country.
The construction of flagship projects is progressing well as the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station is at 40 per cent of its construction while the first-phase of the Standard Gauge Railway from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro is scheduled to be finished in June next year.
The 7trn/- worth project is at an advanced stage of completion between Morogoro and Dar es Salaam and Morogoro to Makutupora in Singida.
The Morogoro-Dar es Salaam section of the SGR project is now at 78 per cent and some trials have also begun and the Government plan is to ensure the project is completed by June next year.
Some other projects implemented by the Government include a 270bn/- worth Selander bridge and Kigongo-Busisi Bridge.
The premier said work on the Ubungo interchange has reached 77 per cent and will cost 247bn/-.