Kariakoo traders still unhappy with Dar port bureaucratic processes

Dar es Salaam Port. Photo|File

What you need to know:

  • Kariakoo traders call on the government to ease merchandise assessment at the Dar es Salaam port and help speed up the clearance of the same to create level grounds for competition, including rooting out corruption.

Dar es Salaam. Business operators at Kariakoo have heaped blame on cargo assessment at Dar es Salaam port claiming it was the cause of the many challenges they face during importation of their merchandise.

Addressing journalists on Friday, December 14, the traders’ association secretary Abdallah Mwinyi said the long bureaucracy at the port amounted to creating an environment of corruption, hence affecting both the government and traders.

“The entire system of carrying out assessment and goods evaluation is not straight forward. The bureaucracy of engaging with several regulatory authorities only cause delays of people’s cargo,” he said.

For his part, the association’s communication officer Steven Chamle said as the community of formal traders who pay taxes, they commended government efforts of preparing and issuing petty traders with identification cards as this would net them and make them start paying taxes.

He said for a long time, formal traders had been crying foul due to street vendors who paid no taxes and yet sold the same merchandise as they did.

“We trust that this move will create a fair operating environment, we urge the government to provide them with education so that they too would play their roles well,” said Mr Chamle.

Further, the traders’ community requested the government to review some tax policies imposed against traders, saying generally their operations had shrunk in the past two years.