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Kilimanjaro capital of illegal fuel trade
2005-07-26 08:21:54
By Bilham Kimati
A huge trade in smuggling fuel across the border from Kenya has developed in Kilimanjaro Region, The Guardian can reveal today.
Despite the success claimed by the government in curbing tax evasion in the petroleum sector, billions of shillings in revenue is still being lost annually.
A weeklong investigation conducted by The Guardian revealed that some corrupt junior police officers in the region have come to learn about the ’’tricks of the game’’ to become self-made millionaires.
They have linked up with cross-border fuel smugglers and share the ”loot” at the expense of the national income.
Kilimanjaro Regional Police Commander Mohamed Chico told The Guardian that a good working relationship existed between his office and the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA).
The police chief said TRA in the region and police patrolling the border had impounded smuggled goods valued at tens of millions of shillings. However, he was not ready to provide details.
’’The TRA regional office should be in a better position to provide you with details on the kind of merchandise confiscated,’’ Chico said.
The floodgates of cross-border fuel smuggling opened when the Tanzania-Italy Petroleum Refinery (Tiper) plant ceased operating a few years ago.
This reporter spent some time at Kitobo Village, Moshi Rural District, on Tanzania’s border with Kenya and saw petrol, diesel and kerosene being smuggled into the country in huge quantities through clandestine ’’panya’’ routes.
Posing as an animal skins trader, this reporter interviewed jovial and prosperous-looking fuel dealers who spoke of ’’cordial relations’’ between them, police and TRA officers in the area.
They said proceeds from the illegal trade not only enabled them to live comfortably, but also boosted the incomes of co-operative law enforcers.
’’Soaring fuel prices in Tanzania are a blessing to us because we buy fuel cheaply from Kenya and sell it for a tidy profit in Tanzania.
Just look and see how government officers are counting money here like lottery winners, a trader said as he inspected his bicycle, ready to take smuggled fuel to customers.
The fuel is usually sold to dealers at prices that are much lower than the average 1,050/-, 1,020/- and 940/- that a litre of petrol, diesel and kerosene, respectively, fetches at filling stations.
The price depends on the prevailing exchange rate between the Tanzanian and Kenyan currencies.
Another fuel dealer, Miraji Omar, said there were as many ’’panya’’ routes as there were smugglers.
He said: ’’A good number of junior police and TRA officers have succumbed to the irresistible temptation of this money-spinning business. They too need to eat, you know.’’
A shop-owner, Msafiri Maningo, said the trade had changed the lives of those involved in the racket in a relatively short time.
’’I know several people who were dirt poor just a few years ago, but have now built very decent houses near the Himo junction.
They are now rich despite the fact that they receive meagre salaries,’’ he said.
The declared working co-operation between the police and TRA regional office appears to be a marriage of convenience that helps to cover up the racket.
This reporter counted 68 bicycles, each carrying six 20-litre containers of kerosene which add up to 8,160 litres of the commodity ferried across the border on a single trip.
Each bicycle makes three round trips a week and this means that an average of 24,000 litres are smuggled in each week, fetching about 19.2m/- if sold for 800/- a litre.
’’This is how we survive here. The consignment goes all the way to Moshi and beyond. Business is especially good at Mererani (tanzanite mines in Manyara Region),’’ said a trader, as he mended a punctured bicycle tyre.
In its report titled The Success of the Third Phase Government in the Financial Sector, the government admits that there is massive tax evasion in the petroleum sector.
It is stated on Page Five of the report that the government recovered some 23.9bn/- revenue that had been initially lost after it was tipped off about tax evasion by fuel companies.
The war against tax evasion becomes complicated when officials entrusted with preventing it collaborate with unscrupulous businessmen to deny the government of hundreds of millions of shillings in revenue.
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