Public and private enterprises and the reform programme in Tanzania

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Periodical article

Title:	Public and private enterprises and the reform programme in Tanzania
Author:	Mtatifikolo, F.P.
Year:	1995
Periodical:	Journal of Eastern African Research and Development (ISSN 0251-0405)
Volume:	25
Pages:	171-187
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Tanzania East Africa
Subjects:	private enterprises economic policy public enterprises Economics, Commerce Economic performance Structural adjustment programmes
Abstract:	This article examines the performance of public and private enterprises in Tanzania over the postcolonial era and links it with the ongoing national reform programme. It outlines the historical development of the public and private sectors, from the harmonious coexistence which characterized the period from independence in 1961 to the 1967 Arusha Declaration, to the crowding out of private enterprises by the public sector in subsequent years through to the late 1970s, and the private sector response, which consisted primarily of going subterranean in search of credit and markets, leading to the emergence and fast growth of the informal economy. The public sector suffered as a result, as government capacity to raise revenues to finance its commitments fell due to the erosion of the tax base: informal sectors became increasingly hard to tax, and parastatals increasingly became nonperformers. Under the reform programmes launched in the 1980s, the private sector is slowly reemerging above ground and in the mainstream of economic activity. Bibliogr., sum.