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Rampant cheating in wood exports - TRA
2007-07-24 10:18:15
By Pastory Nguvu
The value of exported wood products is being under declared by unfaithful traders, leading to maintenance of improper statistics, an official with the Tanzania Revenue Authority has said.
Speaking to journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the TRA Director for Taxpayer Services and Education, Protas Mmanda, said for quite a long time, some unfaithful exporters had been under declaring the value of their products, consequently denying the government its rightful dues.
``Available data indicates that during the 2003/04-2006/07 period, major importing countries of wood products from Tanzania were China, India, Hong Kong, UAE and Singapore. Additional data shows that the main exports were teak, parousa and poine logs,`` said Mmanda.
He said the unfaithful dealers were providing wrong trading information from those countries so that they could evade taxes.
He said the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Prof. Jumanne Maghembe, when contributing to the budget debate in Dodoma on June 21, 2007, had alluded to measures taken by the government towards enhancement of the sector’s contribution towards the country’s economic growth.
He said the minister had directed the formation of a fact finding team to be headed by TRA Commissioner General Harry Kitilya, which will visit countries that import logs and raw timber from Tanzania.
He said the TRA Commissioner General had already met the Customs Directors General of China, India, UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore during the World Customs Organization Council meeting, which took place in Brussels at the end of June.
He said they agreed to exchange information and compare records on wood exports and imports.
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