Participants of the East African Business Council (EABC) regional dialogue said last Friday that joint efforts are needed to improve business and ensure any trader and investor who operates in Tanzania is fairly treated to meet his/ her goals.
The Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) Executive Director, Mr Godfrey Simbeye asked the government to immediately employ the Electronic Single Window System (eSWS) at the port as one of the major way of improving business services related in the country.
According to Mr Simbeye the system will enable smooth collection of revenues, improve ports performance through saving time and will probably attract more customers.
The eSWS is expected to fast track cargo clearance and thus improve efficiency at the country’s main port. According to the 2016 World Bank Group’s report Tanzania is currently ranked 132nd globally in the ease of doing business.
Tanzania had managed to climb seven positions from 139 of the previous year. The report indicated that the government’s efforts in easing availability of credit data helped Tanzania to climb seven places in doing business assessment, which was a historic performance for the last five years.
Tanzania also performed well in areas of starting a business, getting electricity, getting credit and dealing with the construction permits. However, the country was ranked low in areas of streamlining the tax system and crossborder trading.
Mr Simbeye links poor performance with the reluctance of employing eSWS at the Dar port. “We have been asking Mobile the government to adopt this system for a long time, and I can tell you, the government is going to benefit a lot from it,” he said.
He said the system is also expected to help the government to easily get rid of cheating and tax evasion among traders since it is transparent and computerised. “The system reduces human errors and chances of conspiring with tax evaders,” he said.
He added: “If we had employed the eSWS, I can assure you that even those cheating on clearing of containers and evasion of tax would never occur, this is a good system that does not allow any loophole for people to steal from the government, it is a transparent system,” .
According to Mr Simbeye various authorities such as TFDA, TRA and TBS had been stationed at the port but still there have been complaints from traders on the delay of cargo.
He said the problem is rooted on the way of managing documents and that the government needs to employ eSWS to resolve the challenge. He said the World Bank Index on Tanzania’s performance was prepared basing on the performance of Dar es Salaam port.
“When you review the World Bank Index on ‘doing business in Tanzania’, the country has poor marks, the problem is on the handling of documents,” he said.
He added: “ We followed the WB officials and asked them where we went wrong, the answer was simple, that their studies concentrated at the Dar es Salaam port, and that the findings showed poor handling of documents,” The EABC advisor, Mr Adrian Njau there have been complaints between Kenyan and Tanzanian traders on high and discriminatory levies as well as permit fees.
Also lengthy procedures for issuing work permits in Tanzania and high rate of 500/-US dollar, which is paid for business visa. He said another challenge that face traders in the region is the availability of many regulatory agencies that inspect same product as well as high cost of registering a new product with TFDA, which is 2,000/- US dollars while in other partner countries is not more than 1,000-US dollars.
Mr Njau pointed out that for the government of Tanzania and other EAC countries to boost businesses and enable economic growth there must be improvement on the way of doing business.
However, the Tanzania Bureau of Standard (TBS), Prof Egid Mubofu said as his organisation and the governments in general try to set good environment of doing business some Private companies have been reluctant to support the efforts.
He said the government through his organization is one of pillars that facilitate trade to east African regional traders. According to Prof. Mubofu, with the support of the government, TBS has managed to work on some issues that were raised during the previous EABC regional dialogue forum.
According to Prof Mubofu, the government is investing on the establishment of a new modern laboratory at TBS to enable the body to do its jobs efficiently and thus facilitate trade in the region.
He added that the government has also supported TBS to develop relevant standards basing on the volume of goods. “The government has also supported TBS to cooperate with other regional bodies and support implementation and harmonization of standard certification,” he said.
According to Prof. Mubofu, TBS is working hard to facilitate trade in the region and that in the past fiscal year, a total of 56 new staff have been employed to support in providing quality services in various parts of the country especially at border posts.
An official from Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Aristides Mbwasi said the fifth government is committed to support trade development in the country and region at large.
He sad Tanzania is committed to implement the EAC market protocol and that some measures have been taken in ensuring there is good environment for doing business in the region.
“ We are working hard to create good environment of doing business by reviewing laws and policies, we are also resolving some challenges that have been raised by traders and members of private sector so that there could be fair grounds for doing business,” he said.
According to Mr Mbwasi harmonisation of regulatory bodies’ jobs, setting common standards for east African countries are among issues that are being discussed. The EACB regional public dialogue with trade facilitation agencies attracted over 50 business leaders from EAC region.
The EACB also engaged the Commissioner General of Tanzania Immigration Services Department, Dr Anna Makalala.
SOURCE: DAILY NEWS
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