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| Mr Kitilya |
TRA Commissioner General Harry Kitilya told reporters in Dar es Salaam
that, “Dumping remains one of the critical problems subjecting the country to
losses amounting to billions of shillings…but we expect the new technology to
curb the malpractice by 100 per cent.”
Statistics show that the country loses over 25bn/- monthly due to fuel
adulteration, dumping and compensations of lost transit cargo.
Mr Kitilya told
the meeting attended also by officials from Tanzania Truck Owners Association
(TATOA), customs and Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) that all check points with
corrupt practices in various routes to the neighboring countries will be
removed, increasing cargo turnaround.
The aim of introducing the latest technology is to ensure that the
documents wait for the cargo and not the vice versa. “This is one of the
government efforts to remove non tariff barriers and cut down costs of doing
business in Tanzania,” he added.
Mr Kitilya appealed to stakeholders to provide necessary cooperation to
ensure the technology works efficiently especially at its initial stages.
“There might be problems with the technology application in the initial
stages but stakeholders support would be direly needed,” he said.
He said
electronic tracking systems could be the most effective and relatively less
costly option and one of the key strategies to be adopted by both public and
private institutions in efforts to reduce loss as well as unnecessary
expenditures.
The TRA Deputy Commissioner, Customs Modernisation and Risk Management
Mr Bellium Silaa said the electronic sealing wire to be inserted in every truck
carrying transit cargo prevents any attempt at opening, bypassing, or tampering
with the Electronic Seal.
He said the system detects any such attempt, records the event and
sends an alert to be received in the central data base system at TRA. It will
monitor the movement of goods under custom control up to the point of exit in
the boarders.
With the technology, he said it will be possible to track down
and even arrest truck drivers who tamper with cargos, reducing complaints of
loss or fuel adulteration from the cargo owners in the neighboring countries.
The project operates under self-financing arrangement where the tax
agency shall acquire the ECTS software and cover communications costs while
transporters acquire electronic seals and related equipment from approved
hardware suppliers by purchase or leasing.
The tax agency has given transporters three months from Monday to
acquire the gadgets and then it will be compulsory to adopt it.
Source: The Daily News,www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Sebastian Mrindoko
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