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Issue 00601 |
January 30 - February 5, 2010 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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Front Page 3 |
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Tanzania’s arbitrary taxation “scares” exporters to Kenya airports By Musa Juma The horticultural society in Arusha region has requested the Parliamentary Committee for Agriculture, Livestock and Water Resources to work with the Kilimanjaro International Airport authorities to reduce plane landing fees at the facility. The society said at present it was near impossible for them to use KIA due to their high landing charges. Besides the airport charges, the society members complained of excessive export duty. They said the situation had forced them to shift from KIA to Kenya’s airports leading to loss in government revenue collection. The exports officer at Kiliflora farm, Shao Colman, complained of numerous taxes on the investors in Tanzania compared to other nations. The Executive Director of Tanzania Horticultural Association, Jacqueline Mkindi, said the airports high charges and imposition of Value Added Tax on horticultural products on
She said airport charges for a kilogram of flowers used to stand at 2.1 US Dollars but now under new moves, has increased to 2.4 US Dollars per kilogram. Mkindi said the quotation was extremely high compared to what is charged in Kenya at 1.5 US Dollars with no VAT required. She said many of their members had already opted to use Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as an alternative. The director said the government consults the stakeholders before arbitrarily imposing taxes on them. She said instead of boosting collection the government of Tanzania has “scared” the exporters to use other airports thereby benefiting those countries. Earlier, the
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mohamed Muya said
the government understood challenges faced by stakeholders in the
horticultural sector and steps for improvement had been taken. |
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