Author: ABELA MSIKULA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Immigration Services Department to date has issued 348,943 electronic passports since the government resorted to the new document in 2018.
In other words, the Department has so far collected about 52.3bn/-as income in the particular period, where it charges one 50,000/-to process the e- passport.
Clarifying, the Department’s Chief Spokesperson, Mr Paul Mselle at the ongoing Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF), exhibitions said so far the figures were registered as 346,407 as Ordinary, 540-Services, 1990 as Diplomatic class, eight being Special Diplomatic ones.
He said their work became efficient with online application that motivated a big number because it keeps off bothersome bureaucracies and related complications.
“No chance for corruption in this system as everything is conducted online.
No delay, because one is only acquired to submit real documents and it takes not more than seven days for the Dar es Salaam based applicants, and only 14 days for upcountry applicants to have the passport.
“It is also for upcountry applicants and does not subject one physically to walk with documents to the Department’s Headquarter for final cross-checks,” he added.
According to him, apart from easing the procedures, online applications proved to have reduced forgeries and related frauds as the Immigration always communicated with some other service providers, mostly National Identification Authority (NIDA), to verify one’s submitted documents.
“At the beginning of the on-line system, many applicants got trapped for forgery offences and were taken to police for legal measures,” he said.
Commenting on how Covid-19 affected the department in terms of receiving new e-passport applications, the Chief Spokesperson said: “It is true that the applications went down during the pandemic because some countries banned flight trips.
