BY EDITOR
21st May 2013
The story was attributed to Tanga Cement Company Limited managing director Erik Westerberg, who told the company’s Annual General Meeting in Dar es Salaam at the weekend that behind the illegal business were notorious tax evaders out to reap windfall profits untaxed.
What industrialists found hard to understand, according to him, was that data showed that cement consumption in Zanzibar was three to four times higher than on the Mainland while there is little to show for it in Zanzibar in terms of construction projects. Anyway, that is the business with cement, complete with the serious reservations of cement producers.
But smuggling across the Zanzibar Channel, arguably among the ‘conduits’ of choice for illegal business transactions in Tanzania, is not confined to cement.
All manner of imported goods have for long years crossed the Indian Ocean from Zanzibar and found their way to the Mainland and beyond.
The items include cooking oil, rice, sugar, powder milk, car batteries, dry cells, clothes, toothpaste, building materials, etc.
In fact, it is mainly because of this endless smuggling across the channel that last week the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) issued a strong warning to traders and owners of transport facilities engaging in the illegal trade.
According to the revenue agency, severe measures including confiscation of property would be taken against all those involved in the business.
TRA also cautioned residents of Mbweni, Mlingotini, Ununio, Kawe, Msasani, Kunduchi and Kigamboni suburbs in Coast and Dar es Salaam regions to desist from using smuggled commodities, as they could face health risks.
There are many ways smuggling and other forms of crime in the Indian Ocean and elsewhere can be minimised, if not ended. One is to harmonise the taxation systems in use in the United Republic of Tanzania and in Zanzibar so that imports landing anywhere in the country are subjected to uniform customs and related duties.
But the other way is to ensure that the responsibility of putting smuggling on check is not left to the revenue bodies alone, as is currently the case, but also involves other government departments as well as the private sector and the larger population.
As for cement smuggling, manufacturers have already proposed some measures, stressing that Tanzania does not need to import the building material because producers based in the country can supply enough of it and to spare.
To hammer the point home, Tanzania Portland Cement Company Limited (Wazo Hill) managing director Pascal Lesoinne was recently quoted as saying there was need for industrialists to consider lowering cement prices to enable more people to buy the commodity.
If the government decided to take this as part of the way forward, cement smuggling via Zanzibar Channel and whatever other illegal routes there may be would be history.
With the intervention in place, we would possibly see more realistic cement prices. So, why isn’t the smuggling becoming history? Is the existence of the notorious route some top secret even to law-enforcement agencies?
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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