Cheap imports turn domestic sugar sour

Sugar


Domestic firms operating in the sugar industry are said to be on the verge bankruptcy generally speaking that is, if the importation of cheaper sugar is not checked and so Tanganyika Plantation Company (TPC) is calling on related ministries to hold talks with the Prime Minister to find an amicable solution to the increasingly perverse problem.

The stakeholders allege tax evasion as the reason behind the low prices of the imports which means the playing field is very uneven offering unfair competition between the locally produced sugar versus its imported opponent.

“Local manufacturers pay taxes but the imports do not… that is how they are able to sale at such low prices,” alleged an Administrative Officer with Tanganyika Plantation Company (TPC), Sugar Factory, Jaffari Ally.

He sadly concluded that: “…if the government doesn’t move swiftly and control the imports by ensuring they pay taxes…we will have to close shop,”

He was speaking t an exclusive interview with The Guardian, as he explained that for instance, 50kgs of locally manufactured sugar costs between 69,000/- and 75,000/- while the imported sugar of the same quantity - from the neighbouring Kenya and other countries, is selling at only 50,000/-.

“The local sugar cannot go as low as 50,000/- per 50kgs mainly because of the various high taxes…” lamented the officer.

He also raised another troubling aspect saying that the giving monetary values are for wholesalers but ones the 50kgs are cut down to retail bags, then both the local and imported sugar sell for the same prices.

“So it is not the final consumer who benefit because they pay high retail prices…it is not Tanzanians who gain from these low wholesale prices it is the importers,” Ally explained.

Tanzania’s current sugar production capacity stands at 320,000 metric tonnes annually yet actual demand is 480,000 metric tonnes for both household and industrial uses.

This deficit created a dire shortage of the product, so bad that, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda, encouraged importation of a minimum of 50,000 tonnes each year but now, the local produces fear closure if the government doesn’t cap the importation.



SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

nilikuwa najiuliza inakuwaje sukari kutoka brazil ina bei ndogo kuliko ya moshi, kagera, mtibwa na kilombero. nilifikiri kwa sababu ya matumizi ya mashine kumbe ni kodi!. LAKINI huyo jaffary ni muongo sisi hatuimport sukari toka kenya ila wakenya wanaimport toka kwetu na uganda na wanalalamika kwamba tunanunua sukari kwa bei rahisi toka brazil zisizolipiwa kodi na kuwauzia hivyo kuua viwanda vyao. lakini sereikali inatakiwa itoze kodi na kureggulate kiasi cha sukaRI kinachoingia ili isije ikaua viwanda Vyetu. watanzania tunatia AIbu sana tuna ardhi kubwa kuliko kenya lakini wanatushinda katika uzalishaji wa sukaRI. watu waipata pesa wnafungua tu mahoteli na mabar badala ya kujikusanya kuchukua kumake big money out of sugar.