According to a State House statement, President Kagame said he was pleased by the measures taken by President Magufuli to crack down on tax evasion and inefficiency at the port, which handles over 70 per cent Rwandan cargo. Dar Port acts as a trade gateway for landlocked states such as Zambia, Rwanda, Malawi, Burundi and Uganda as well as the Eastern Region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The World Bank said in a report mid-this year that inefficiency at the Dar es Salaam port cost Tanzanians and other East Africans dearly as they had to pay more for imported goods, including basic products such as crude oil, cement, fertiliser and medicine.
According to the report - in 2012, the total global welfare loss resulting from inefficiencies at the port was estimated to reach value of US$ 1.8 billion for the Tanzanian economy and 830 million US dollars for the neighbouring countries.
These losses were equivalent to approximately seven per cent of Tanzania’s annual GD, affecting a wide range of local consumers, businesses and government agencies. President Magufuli has launched a crackdown on tax evasion and inefficiency, dismissing the Director-General of the Tanzania Ports Authority(TPA) and some officials in the Transport Ministry over graft and tax evasion allegations at the port.
He has also suspended six high-ranking officials at the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA, including its commissioner-general, pending investigation into the allegations. The latest casualty in President Magufuli’s crackdown is the long-serving Director General of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Dr Edward Hoseah, who was sacked last week due to the slow pace in the fight against graft.
The President’s Office said the dismissal of the PCCB chief came after two surprise visits to the Dar es Salaam Port by the Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa. Police are investigating the disappearance of over 2,700 shipping containers from inland container depots that serve the port that were cleared without relevant taxes being paid.
In another development, President Magufuli has ensured Resident Representative of African Development Bank, Dr Tonia Kandiero that the fifth-phase government will continue to cooperate with the multilateral bank in implementing various development projects.
President Magufuli also called upon the bank to cut on long process in implementation of development projects and advised to expedite procedure to enable beginning of projects shortly after release of funds, according to State House statement.
Apart from congratulating President Magufuli for being elected as the fifth president of Tanzania, Dr Kandiero assured her host of continued cooperation with Tanzania in carrying out development projects.
She said ADB had set aside 2.3 billion US dollars for financing implementation of development projects in Tanzania. ADB would focus on issuing credits to energy and transport sectors, she noted.
President Magufuli congratulated ADB for choosing the two sectors which are vital in speeding up development and economic growth and stressed to look into how it would support construction of the central railway line to standard gauge.
A Chinese consortium had been awarded a contract to build a 2,561 km (1,536 miles) standard gauge railway connecting Dar es Salaam port to land-locked neighbours at a cost of $7.6 billion, former Transport Minister Samuel Sitta said in Parliament last May.
The consortium will provide 10 per cent of the funding for the project while financial adviser Rothschild is finalising procedures for financing of the project through banks, Sitta said.
Culled from Daily News
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