Tanzanian MPs want government to pull out of EAC single customs territory

[Cicero]

Tanzanian MPs have called on their governments to pull out of the EAC Single Customs Territory, saying it is one of the major causes of massive revenue and job losses and a decline in lucrative transit cargo traffic at the port of Dar es Salaam.

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MPs warn govt over EAC single customs territory

saying it is one of the major causes of massive revenue and job losses and a decline in lucrative transit cargo traffic at the port of Dar es Salaam.

The Single Customs Territory (SCT), which was adopted in January 2014, was expected to increase the volume of goods handled by both Dar es Salaam and the port of Mombasa in Kenya. But on the contrary, Dar es Salaam has recorded a significant reduction in cargo volumes this year, according to stakeholders.

While government officials blame the drop in cargo business at the Dar es Salaam port to an ongoing tax evasion crackdown and the well-documented problems of inefficiency at the port, the parliamentary committee yesterday chose to pinpoint the SCT as the real culprit.

"The committee is of the opinion that Tanzania should pull out of the EAC single customs territory,” committee vice-chairman Selemani Kakoso said yesterday during a meeting with top officials of the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication.

“We have already lost a lot of cargo at the port of Dar es Salaam as a result of implementing the single customs territory. In fact, we have been reduced to a mere tax collection agent for other countries," Kakoso added.

The adoption of the SCT by the five EAC member states - Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi - was a key step towards the full attainment of a regional customs union through removing restrictive regulations and minimising internal border controls on goods moving between the partner states to ultimately allow the free circulation of goods.

An interconnectivity of customs systems in the east African region was expected to, among other things, facilitate a seamless flow of information between customs stations and a payment system to manage transfers of revenues between partner states, according to the EAC website.

Under the customs union, partner states agreed to adopt the 'Destination Model' of clearance of goods where assessment and collection of revenue is done at the first point of entry.

Objectives of the customs union include reducing the cost of doing business and creating a mechanism for prevention of smuggling at a regional level.

According to Kakoso, the Tanzania-Zambia Railways Authority (TAZARA) has reported a significant decline in cargo volumes at the Dar es Salaam port which are transported by (TAZARA) rail to the land-locked Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Instead, most of the DRC cargo is now being diverted to the port of Beira in Mozambique, the committee vice-chair said.

He asserted that DRC traders were running away from the Dar es Salaam port due to the implementation of the single customs territory which has made the Dar es Salaam port much more expensive.

Mozambique, which is not part of the EAC and hence has not adopted the SCT, is benefitting from the fallout, Kakoso said.

He added: "Most businessmen from DRC Congo have now stopped using the Dar es Salaam port and shifted their business to Beira port in Mozambique, while others are using Kenya’s Mombasa port.”

"Although Kenya has also adopted the single customs territory, they are somehow getting more DRC cargo while we are losing out."

Cargo volumes at the Dar es Salaam port are however likely to rebound if Tanzania exits from the single customs territory, he argued, saying:

“We have to let other countries choose their ways of collecting their taxes. As you can see at our own port of Dar es Salaam, the drop in cargo volumes has impacted many businesses across the country, including transport firms whose trucks are now idling in their parking lots.”

According to Kakoso, many workers in the local transport sector and clearing and forwarding companies could lose their jobs due to the declining cargo traffic situation at the country's main port.

On his part, committee member Ahmed Shabiby (Gairo - CCM) described the decline in cargo volumes at the Dar es Salaam port as "massive."

“We have seen DR Congo businessmen now opting to use the Mombasa port and they have stopped coming to the Dar es Salaam port. This has led to a reduction in cargo traffic at the Dar es Salaam port by 60 per cent," Shabiby said.

"We have also seen some businesses in Tanzania becoming stuck due to the adoption of this single customs territory”, he added.

Responding to the committee’s concerns, the deputy minister for Works, Transport and Communication, Edwin Ngonyani, defended the SCT by saying it has helped boost revenue collection by the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA).

“What the government understands is that this is a good system and it has in fact increased tax collection in our country and reduced the dumping of cheap export goods into our market,” Ngonyani said.

But he said the ministry was not responsible for the implementation of the SCT, asserting that the finance ministry and TRA were better placed to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the system.

TAZARA's regional general manager for Tanzania, Fuad Abdallah, told committee members that the railway has been hit by a sharp fall in transit cargo volumes at the Dar es Salaam port.

“We failed to reach our target of transporting 200,000 tonnes of cargo a year after losing a significant amount of transit cargo from the DRC," Abdallah said.

Source: MPs warn govt over EAC single customs territory

 

[MANI]

Huu ndio ukweli lakini kosa ni kuingiza Drc kwenye mfumo huu kwa nchi husika hakuna tatizo.

 

[Cicero]

Huu ndio ukweli lakini kosa ni kuingiza Drc kwenye mfumo huu kwa nchi husika hakuna tatizo.

Kosa kivipi mkuu?

 

[MANI]

Kosa kivipi mkuu?

Drc sio member wa eac sisi tunamsaidia matokeo ni kuwa wafanyibiashara wa drc wamehama dar

 

[ntita]

Drc sio member wa eac sisi tunamsaidia matokeo ni kuwa wafanyibiashara wa drc wamehama dar

kwa nn wahamie Mombasa?...

 

[MANI]

kwa nn wahamie Mombasa?...

Mombasa hawakuwaweka kwenye sct kwa hiyo ushuru wanalipia kwao. Unajua ni risk kulipia ushuru huku wakati huna uhakika wa mzigo kufika salama kuna ajali wizi humo barabarani nafikiri unaona gari nyingi za it zimepata ajali zikiwa njiani kwenda kwao sasa fikiria kuwa umeshalipia ushuru kwa kitu kisichofika kwenu.

 

[ntita]

Mombasa hawakuwaweka kwenye sct kwa hiyo ushuru wanalipia kwao. Unajua ni risk kulipia ushuru huku wakati huna uhakika wa mzigo kufika salama kuna ajali wizi humo barabarani nafikiri unaona gari nyingi za it zimepata ajali zikiwa njiani kwenda kwao sasa fikiria kuwa umeshalipia ushuru kwa kitu kisichofika kwenu.

so Kenya haiki kweye hiyo SCT?

 

[MANI]

so Kenya haiki kweye hiyo SCT?

Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania na Burundi ndio zipo kwenye sct sisi tulimsaidia Drc kwa kuwa alikuwa analalamika kukusanya kodi kwa mizigo iingiayo. Sct ni kwa nchi za jumuiya ya afrika mashariki tu na Drc sio mwanachama.

 

[MK254]

Ndio matatizo ya kumtafuta mchawi usiku, mtaweweseka sana, mara hiki mara kile, hamna mpango, hamna mwelekeo, hamna mikakati. Kila mkipigwa chenga mnalaumu Kenya, mnalilia Kenya, mnaona Kenya, mnawaza Kenya...... Sasa hao hao wateja wa DRC wanahamia Kenya ambayo nayo pia ipo ndani ya SCT, sasa mnajidanganya suluhu ni nyie kujiondoa.

Punguzeni mihemuko, mkae mjiulize maswali ya msingi kwamba mlifika hapo vipi na wapi pa kutokea.

 

[Dhuks]

Somebody please explain if Sct is the problem why Mombasa and Beira have benefited at the expense of Dar

 

[Kafrican]

Mkijitoa kwa SCT, kenya itakua na uwezo wa kuingia mkataba na EU kivyake bila kuhitaji sahihi ya Tz, je, mmefikiria hio kwani mtakua mmetupunguziea shida

 

[kilam]

so Kenya haiki kweye hiyo SCT?

Actually, most of the Congolese importers have moved to Beira port and not Mombasa port.
Dar port advised to relax taxation to woo clients

 

[Quickly]

Anyone who finds a port like Beira better over Dar ameona mbali. Yaani bandari hafifu kama hili lime thubutu kuipa dar ushindani? Bandari yenye imeshindwa kuchukua fursa za kuhudumia nchi kama Zimbabwe,Zambia na Malawi, leo hii inachukua bidhaa za DRC. Vipi hilo kamati la bunge kuhepa swala la wizi ? Aibu tupu.

 

[kilam]

Anyone who finds a port like Beira better over Dar ameona mbali. Yaani bandari hafifu kama hili lime thubutu kuipa dar ushindani? Bandari yenye imeshindwa kuchukua fursa za kuhudumia nchi kama Zimbabwe,Zambia na Malawi, leo hii inachukua bidhaa za DRC. Vipi hilo kamati la bunge kuhepa swala la wizi ? Aibu tupu.

What about Ethiopia using Djibouti port and not Mombasa?

 

[Quickly]

What about Ethiopia using Djibouti port and not Mombasa?

Lolz are you actually reasoning??????? Look up a map to see where Djibouti and Ethiopia lie, then look at Mombasa and see where Ethiopia is likely to use.


Weak point, try something else

 

[MK254]

Anyone who finds a port like Beira better over Dar ameona mbali. Yaani bandari hafifu kama hili lime thubutu kuipa dar ushindani? Bandari yenye imeshindwa kuchukua fursa za kuhudumia nchi kama Zimbabwe,Zambia na Malawi, leo hii inachukua bidhaa za DRC. Vipi hilo kamati la bunge kuhepa swala la wizi ? Aibu tupu.

Yaani hakuna watu wavivu kama Wabongo, jameni wanawatesa sana majirani zao kwa huo uvivu. Imagine ndio hadi Mkongo wa DRC afanye maamuzi ya kutumia bandari ya Beira, ina maana amekubali usafiri unaohusu nchi kadhaa. Kutokea Beira itabidi akatize Msumbiji yote bandarini hadi mpakani, aje akatize Malawi yote mpakani hadi mpakani, akatize Zambia mpakani hadi mpakani ndio aingie DRC. Yaani wanatamaushwa na Wabongo balaa.

Imagine ndio hata huwa nashangaa eti kuna Warundi wanatumia bandari yetu, pia na wao wanafanya maamuzi ya kukatiza ndani ya nchi kadhaa ndio wafikishe mzigo. Hiyo bandari ya Tanzania ikabidhiwe Kagame ndio waamuke. Hata rais Magufuli ashachoka na uzembe wa Waswahili wake, hadi ameamua TRA itafanyiwa kazi na Wanyarwanda.

Wabongo hata ukiwa nao kwenye vikao, maneno mengi hadi unachoka, vikao haviishi, wanazunguka kwenye issue moja kuanzia asubuhi hadi jioni bila maamuzi. Ukitaka kuwazima, ongea Kingereza, hapo ndio utaona kimyaaaa, na anyethubutu kuongea anakua makini sana huku amejiandaa nini cha kusema.

 

[kilam]

Lolz are you actually reasoning??????? Look up a map to see where Djibouti and Ethiopia lie, then look at Mombasa and see where Ethiopia is likely to use.


Weak point, try something else

Try to find which part of DRC import from Dar and then compare its distance from Beira.
"Port acting manager Hebel Mhanga said the facility had in recent times lost some customers from DRC and Zambia, who opted for the shorter Beira route. It takes just four days to haul cargo from Beira to Zambia compared with more than a week from the Tanzanian port".

 

[kilam]

Yaani hakuna watu wavivu kama Wabongo, jameni wanawatesa sana majirani zao kwa huo uvivu. Imagine ndio hadi Mkongo wa DRC afanye maamuzi ya kutumia bandari ya Beira, ina maana amekubali usafiri unaohusu nchi kadhaa. Kutokea Beira itabidi akatize Msumbiji yote bandarini hadi mpakani, aje akatize Malawi yote mpakani hadi mpakani, akatize Zambia mpakani hadi mpakani ndio aingie DRC. Yaani wanatamaushwa na Wabongo balaa.

Imagine ndio hata huwa nashangaa eti kuna Warundi wanatumia bandari yetu, pia na wao wanafanya maamuzi ya kukatiza ndani ya nchi kadhaa ndio wafikishe mzigo. Hiyo bandari ya Tanzania ikabidhiwe Kagame ndio waamuke. Hata rais Magufuli ashachoka na uzembe wa Waswahili wake, hadi ameamua TRA itafanyiwa kazi na Wanyarwanda.

Wabongo hata ukiwa nao kwenye vikao, maneno mengi hadi unachoka, vikao haviishi, wanazunguka kwenye issue moja kuanzia asubuhi hadi jioni bila maamuzi. Ukitaka kuwazima, ongea Kingereza, hapo ndio utaona kimyaaaa, na anyethubutu kuongea anakua makini sana huku amejiandaa nini cha kusema.

Acha uzwazwa kenge wa kikuyu wewe, mizigo mingi ya Kongo inayopitia Dar ni ya kwenda Lubumbashi. Sasa, angalia umbali wa kutoka Dar na Beira kwenda Lubumbashi halafu urudi tena. Kweli punguani sio lazima aokote makopo.

 

[Cicero]

Quickly MK254 do not be quick to judge. These are better placed people who know what they are talking about. I actually want to here why they think the SCT is the problem. When did the SCT come into effect? Why was Dar port doing just fine during JK's era? I sense politics at play here........

 

[MK254]

Quickly MK254 do not be quick to judge. These are better placed people who know what they are talking about. I actually want to here why they think the SCT is the problem. When did the SCT come into effect? Why was Dar port doing just fine during JK's era? I sense politics at play here........

No matter which angle you look at it, your legislators are misinformed, take it to the bank.....I am very well versed on the industry. I've every bit of statistics and reports involved. You were doing so well in achieving desired efficacy, it was just a matter of time before the busiest Tunduma joined in.