House team faults Oil and Gas regulations

Dodoma. The Parliament’s subsidiary legislations committee has faulted regulations of the Oil and Gas Act of 2017, saying it is contrary to other laws.

Committee chairman Andrew Chenge said in Parliament on Thursday, September 13, that the regulations have given the minister of Finance and Planning the mandate to participate in negotiations of contracts and revenue allocation, contrary to the requirements provided in the other laws.

According to him, the minister is not supposed to be granted all the powers as stipulated in Section 324 (4) of the Act.

“According to section 5 and 47 of the Petroleum Act of 2015, the said roles should be executed by the minister of Energy, Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), and the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) on behalf of the government,” he said.

He said the roles did not correspond with those given to the Finance minister by the Oil and Gas Revenue Management Act of 2015.

Mr Chenge who is a lawyer by profession said section 4 (2) (b) of the regulations was contrary to the requirements of section 36(1) of chapter one of the interpretation of laws Act that the subsidiary laws should not be against the main Act or any other law of the land.

“So, on this ground, section 4 (2) (b) of the regulation is null and void,” he said.