THERE is no legal wrangle over the document to be used for SIM card biometric registration, the government clarified yesterday, insisting that the identity document issued by the National identification Authority (NIDA) is the only legally accepted document.
The clarification comes amid growing concern, citing Section 93 of the Electronic and Postal Communi cations Act (EPOCA) of 2010 stating that SIM cards can be registered by using any of the legal documents such as passport, national identity cards and driving licence, among others.
In an exclusive interview with the ‘Daily News’, Deputy Minister for Works, Transport and Communications, Mr Atashasta Nditiye, made it clear that the law in question had been amended since last year (2019) a move that has now limited all SIM card owners to use only national identity cards for the biometric registration.
“It’s unfortunate that people were not following this issue from the beginning, the Parliament amended the law since last year, therefore, only NIDA cards are allowed to be used for the exercise,” he said in a telephone interview with this paper.
He asked Tanzanians who haven’t registered their SIM cards to do the needful, as it is the legal requirement to use a Sim card that has been registered with a finger print of the subscriber.
The concern being circulated on social media has it that, in case the SIM card that qualifies for the registration is disconnected by the Tanzania Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) then the subscriber can ask for compensation.
Responding to this, Mr Nditiye asked Tanzanians to ignore the assertion and adhere to the law, as there is no substitute to that.
The Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) number 5 Act, of 2019 that became effective on 19th September, 2019, made amendments to the law in order to have all subscribers register their lines biometrically.
The said amendments sought to regulate subscribers and service providers, distributors, agents or authorised dealers on the use of unregistered SIM card.
For customers who use unregistered SIM cards, the law imposes a fine of not less than 3m/- or imprisonment of not less than six months, or both.
Again, for service providers who cause unregistered SIM card to be used, the law imposes upon them the fine of not less than ten million shillings or imprisonment of not less than twelve months, or both.
An additional fine of 750,000/- shall be imposed for each day if the service provider continues to commit the offence.
The Director General of TCRA, James Kilaba, said in the city on Monday that the regulator had already disconnected 975,041 SIM cards that haven’t registered biometrically.
From the total, 656,091 are those who have either number or national ID but have failed to register their SIM cards and the second group has 318,950 people who registered their lines by using their national ID’s before the exercise was rolled out.
