AG Kilangi faults Zitto Kabwe, Mwambe in cashew nut levy

Dodoma. The Attorney General (AG), Dr Adelardus Kilangi has faulted Mr Zitto Kabwe (Kigoma Urban – ACT Wazalendo), saying the lawmaker erred when he explained earlier today how the cashew nut export levy was initiated.

Debating the Finance Bill, 2018 in the House, Mr Kabwe said the cashew nut levy was initiated by stakeholders of the crop and thus they (the stakeholders) had the right to ownership of the cash.

“Mr Speaker, it is only the cashew nut crop that has an export levy in this country…cashew nut stakeholders decided to come up with the levy through their annual meetings. It’s the stakeholders who came to inform Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) about what they agreed and that the taxman should help in collecting the levy,” said Mr Zitto.

To ensure that the government also earns some cash from the levy, said Mr Kabwe, it was agreed that TRA should take 35 per cent of the money. “It is unfortunate that today, we are telling the stakeholders that we are now taking the entire 100 per cent of the money that they had asked the government to collect on their behalf,” said Mr Zitto.

But in response, Dr Kilangi said his opinion was the best one in as far as the legal aspect of the issue was concerned.

“The export levy was not established by cashew nut stakeholders. It was established under the Cashew nut Act of 1984,” he said, noting that the 1984 law empowered the Minister of Finance to establish the levy if he so wished to.
Read more: Legal knowledge flows freely as cashew nut levy goes back to Parliament

Speaking on the High Court ruling which was later upheld by the Court of Appeal on how to share the cashew nut export levy revenues, Dr Kilangi concurred with the Deputy Minister for Education and Vocational Training, Mr William Ole Nasha.

Speaking in Parliament in the morning, Mr Cecil Mwambe (Ndanda -Chadema) said the available Court ruling on the issue was that the export levy belongs to the public.

But according to Dr Kilango, what Appeals Court said was: “The Appeal is lacking in merit and we accordingly dismiss it….”.

However, as rightly said by Mr Ole Nasha, the judges did say a number of opinions.

Speaking on the point of order when Mr Mwambe’s was debating the Finance Bill in the morning, Mr Ole Nasha told the House that the former (Mr Mbwambe) was misleading the Parliament from a legal point of view.

"In law, there is 'obiter dicta' and 'dicta'. What Mr Mwambe is delivering in the former which does not form the basis of the main court ruling," he said.

Obiter dicta refers to a judge's expression of opinion uttered in court or in a written judgement, but not essential to the decision and therefore not legally binding as a precedent.

On the contrary, the dicta is what defines the main judgement, said Mr Ole Nasha.