By Special Correspondents, DAR ES
SALAAM, NAIROBI
THE formal launching of the Namanga
One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) along the common border between Tanzania and Kenya
next-door is projected to increase Government revenue collections by the
Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) from Tsh41 billion to Tsh58 billion this
financial year (FY-2018/19). The new increase will boost Tanzanian President
John Pombe Magufuli’s collection targets.
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| Magufuli and Kenya |
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| President Magufuli |
Speaking at the launch jointly
conducted at Namanga by the President of the United Republic Tanzania, His
Excellency Dr, Magufuli, and the President of the Republic of Kenya, His
Excellency Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, President Magufuli said the common
border post – which started operations in October last year – had helped
reduce time of clearance through Customs and Immigration from one hour to 15
minutes.
Both President Magufuli and his
Kenyan counterpart, Kenyatta, profusely thanked the financiers of the
construction of the border post project, the African Development Bank (AfDB)
and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
In the event, they jointly called
upon both Tanzanians and Kenyans to increasingly do business through the border
post. They also stressed that small-scale traders should be encouraged and
otherwise supported to do business across the common border as a matter of
course.
“Kenya holds the third position out
of the ten (10) countries that lead in investing in Tanzania. So, when
Kenyan businesspersons pass through here, don’t take them as enemies,”
President Magufuli told the gathering.
“This also applies to Tanzania, a
country with large livestock herds, especially cattle. So, when Tanzanians take
meat for sale to Kenya, they should not be unduly harassed or impeded from
doing so,” Dr. Magufuli pleaded.
For his part, President Kenyatta
said “We need to see ourselves as East Africans, and bring our countries closer
together. We are supposed to use our strength of about 200 million people’s to
do business and justly benefit from it.
“Our duty as leaders is to
facilitate businesses and not to block businesses. And you as peoples: you need
to do your businesses freely – always provided that you don’t infringe the
laws, and you don’t indulge in illegal business,” President Kenyatta counseled.
The Namanga One-Stop Border Post is
one of 15 such border posts constructed on the common borders of the six member
countries of the East African Community with the aim of facilitating businesses
among the states by speeding up cross- border services while increasing revenue
collections and strengthening security all round.
Construction of the Namanga OSBP was
jointly financed by the AfDB, JICA and the governments of Tanzania and Kenya,
whereby the related infrastructure cost Tsh. 22.365 billion.
Besides launching the offices and
other facilities of the Namanga OSBP, the two presidents had the opportunity of
planting trees on the spot as remembrance of the event. They also inspected the
facilities, and briefly observed Customs and Immigration officials in action at
their workstations located cheek-by-jowl.
Since taking power in November 2015,
the Fifth-Phase Government of Tanzania has been making efforts at increasing
public revenue collections.
To that end, the TRA has managed to
increase its monthly revenue collections from an average of Tsh850 billion per
month in 2015 to Tsh1.3 trillion per month currently.
In the 2015/16 financial year, the
revenue collections totaled Tsh12.5 trillion. The collections increased to
Tsh14.4 trillion in FY-2016/17 – and reached Tsh15.5 trillion in
FY-2017/18. In other words, the total Government revenue collections in
the period of three financial years reached Tsh42.4 trillion.
A report on revenue collections in
the first quarter of the current financial year (FY- 2018/19) – namely July 1
to September 30, 2018 – shows that TRA had collected Tsh3. 84 trillion,
compared to the Tsh3.65 trillion it collected in a similar period during the
2017/18 financial year.
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