Companies working in the extractive sector paid a total of 419bn/- (USD305 million) to the government and its agencies according to report by the Tanzania Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (TEITI) covering the period from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010.

A statement availed to The Guardian yesterday said the amount is up almost three times compared to the first reconciliation report which covered the period from July 1, 2008 to June 30 2009 in which only 11 companies had reported their payments.

According to the findings of the second TEITI report on reconciliation of payments made by extractive companies and government revenues received from extractive companies, mining companies account for 80 percent of the revenue while oil and gas account for 20 percent.

It said contribution by commodities are 64 percent from gold; 20 percent from gas, 1 percent from Tanzanite, and 1 percent from diamond.

"The increase in revenue is partly due to increase in the number of companies included in the second report and partly due to familiarity with the reporting procedure,” said the statement.

According to the report, the government received a total of 419bn/- in July while mining and gas companies showed payments of 424bn/- resulting in a net discrepancy of 5bn/-.

“This report highlights under receipts (companies reporting more than what government acknowledged to have received) of 44bn/- which is almost 10 percent of total government receipts,” said the statement.

It said this year’s discrepancies were mainly due to two companies failing to report .

It named the companies which had failed to report as the Tanzania Portland Cement company, which represents 7 percent of the government revenues in the extractives sector and Mineral Extractions Technologies Limited.

It said there were also discrepancies in import duty between the Tanzania Revenue Authority and Geita Gold Mine.