Africa-Press – Tanzania. STRICT measures to curb smuggling of minerals and cartels of fake dealers have enabled the government to save close to 105bn/- in three years.
Tabling the Ministry of Minerals’ 2021/22 budget estimates in Parliament, Minister Dotto Biteko said as the government threw its weight into curbing mineral smuggling authorities seized both hard cash and minerals.
According to the minister, operations mounted by various authorities enabled them to confiscate a sum of 34.1bn/- and more than 29.5 million US dollars in three years, bringing the total amount to about 105bn/-.
Out of the amount, Minister Biteko said 2.79bn/- and 93,306 US dollars were recovered between July 2020 to March, this year.
He further said that minerals worth 763m/- and 33,617 US dollars were also confiscated between July last year to March, this year. Minister Biteko asked the Parliament to endorse over 66.8bn/- budget as recurrent and expenditure for the 2021/22 financial.
According to him, the money was saved after they man aged to intercept 112 incidents of mineral smuggling since 2017. He said the saving was a result of strategies put in place by the government to control smuggling.
As an intervention to control mineral smuggling, he said, the government established mineral trading centres which have largely reduced the malpractice.
The minister said so far, there are 39 mineral trading centres in the country and 40 mini-markets for minerals country wide. Mr Biteko said the markets are found in Chunya (Mbeya), Geita, Kahama (Shinyanga), Mwanza, Gairo (Morogoro), Morogoro, Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Dodoma.
He said the performance of the mineral markets have showed good trend whereas between July 2020 and March this year revenue worth 93.4bn/- and 15.7bn/- as royalty was collected from the sale and inspection of the minerals.
Mr Biteko said they will keep on working with security organs to control mineral smuggling so that the government earns the needed revenue.
In collaboration with the security organs, the ministry has organised strategic checks and inspection of fake dealers in the regions of Manyara, Arusha, Mbeya, Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Geita, Kagera, Shinyanga and Morogoro to ensure that all germs are channeled to the official mineral markets.
To step up control and monitoring of exportation of mineral smuggling the government has intensified security at the airports, ports and borders as well as timely and keen issuance of certification for export where needed.
Minister Biteko said the mining sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been raising tremendously and it is expected to reach ten per cent to by 2025.
He said in 2014 the mining sector’s contribution to GDP was 3.8 per cent before it shot up to 5.2 per cent in 2019. Mr Biteko said by September last year, the contribution was 6.4 per cent, an indicator that the contribution to GDP is likely rise to ten percent come 2025, meeting the government target.
Minister Biteko said the increase in the sector’s contribution to the GDP was a result of reforms in policies, amendments of laws and guidelines in the mining sector.
The objective, he said was to have in place a vibrant industry whose contribution to the national economy is tangible. He said the government will keep on establishing minerals trading centers across the country when need arise to control smuggling.
Minister Biteko also expressed the government’s commitment to empower small scale miners, so that they perform well and use state-of-the- art technologies for increased productivity.
