The projection was made by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) review team that visited Tanzania earlier this month, according to local English newspaper Sunday Citizen.

The Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco) in January this year already put into effect a power tariff raise of 6 percent.

The state-owned company has been depending on estimated commercial bank loans of between 166 million and 250 million U.S. dollars.

The IMF review team has sent its report to Tanzania's president and finance minister to propose the electricity tariff hike in the latter half of this year.

The IMF experts said in its report that it was inevitable for the Tanzanian government to raise power tariffs so as to rescue Tanesco from financial collapse.

The power tariff rise will help Tanesco's bank interest rates and avoid its borrowing crowding out the productive private sector activity, said the IMF experts.

Apart from commercial bank loans, the government of Tanzania has also injected some 116 million dollars into Tanesco in the past four years to support its functioning.