Africa-Press – Tanzania. IF a proposal by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on budget to have the foreign exchange (Bureau De Change) Regulations of 2019 reviewed, businesspeople in the forex sector may breathe a sigh of relief after their closure by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), which affected transactions in the country.
The proposal was presented in the August House yesterday by the Chairperson of the committees Sillo Baran, as Members of Parliament (MPs) started debating the 2021/2022 national budget with almost all of them, saying it was people centred, aimed at solving problems bedeviling Tanzanians.
Mr Baran said recent reforms in the sector, which almost gave commercial banks the mandate to conduct bulk foreign currency trading has had several impacts to the sector.
The committee chairperson said some banks had few branches in the country and that during the weekend and at nights, many people were unable to have forex services.
In 2019, the government tightened its currency controls with new regulations on foreign exchange bureaus, in an ongoing fight against money laundering.
The 2019 regulations, among other things require customers to provide information on the source or purpose of the foreign currency to be transacted.
During the debate yesterday, Special Seats MP, Juliana Shonza (CCM), said in a few days that President Samia Suluhu Hassan had stayed in office, she had demonstrated great leadership ability on solving people’s problems.
She said the sixth phase government’s maiden budget had come out with a tangible solution to several problems. The MP further said that apart from local citizens, public servants also had a reason to smile after the government allocated in the next budget over 400bn/- for promoting them.
Vunjo lawmaker, Dr Charles Kimei (CCM) said that the President’s maiden budget had included views of parliamentarians as well as all stakeholders. Sikonge MP, Joseph Kakunda said that the budget would apart from helping the entire nation it would assist residents in his constituency as the government allocated about 5bn/- for construction of a 172 kilometre road.
Sophia Mwakagenda (Special Seats-CHADEMA), said the 2021/2022 had responded to peoples’ problems. She, however called for the need for the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) to conduct a countrywide identification of tax payers so as to widen the tax base.
