Transporters to seek PM help on tax

Dar es Salaam. Transporters intend to meet Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa to air their grievances about the burden of value-added tax (VAT) on ancillary services associated with goods in transit, which has harmed their business. They are concerned that the business of hauling goods in transit has deteriorated to the extent that revenues have fallen abysmally.

They say most transporters have been failing to repay bank loans on time.

The Tanzania Association of Transporters (TAT) chief operations officer, Mr Hussein Wandwi, last week said that during their meeting on August 18 they resolved to meet the Prime Minister. They also resolved that a link between the cargo decline at the Dar es Salaam Port and the VAT imposition on ancillary services for goods in transit should be established. They suspect that importers from landlocked countries have been avoiding the Dar es Salaam Port because the VAT had been harming them.

“We have met under the umbrella of the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation and the European Business Group. We have agreed to continue pressing for finding a solution on this problem…Transport business on transit goods is reeling,” said Mr Wandwi. TAT vice president Omar Kiponza said although the Tanzania Revenue Authority has been insisting that the VAT imposition was not responsible for cargo decrease at the port, the situation had become unbearable to transporters.