Tanzania Revenue Authority, Zambian counterpart ink trade pact

Tunduma. Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and its Zambian counterpart yesterday signed an agreement to simplify trade at the Tunduma border post.

The move follows a directive jointly issued by President John Magufuli and his Zambian counterpart for heads of the taxmen of the two agency to find efficient ways of collecting revenues.

The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) commissioner general, Dr Edwin Mhede, told journalists after signing the agreement that the agreement will help significantly reduce bottlenecks at the post, which trigger smuggling of goods.

He said before the agreement there has been huge loses of time for cargo and people wanting to cross the border due to lack of a joint arrangement of executing clearance work and issuing permits.

He said the problem was highly contributed by lack of crucial information about cargos from ports.

“This step will bolster operations and improve efficiency by cutting time transporters stayed before delivering their cargo to the other side of the border,” said Dr Mhede.

He said since the opening of the one-stop border post in October last year there has been huge success where people are easily crossing the border. Zambian Revenue Agency head Kingsley Chanda said the move was an implementation of a directive from President Magufuli and his Zambian counterpart Edgar Lungu.

Momba regional administrative secretary Mary Marco said lack of good road infrastructure on the Nakonde side of Zambia has been main source of lorries congestion in the town because they are not allowed to operate during the day.

Nakonde regional commissioner Field Simwinga promised to end the infrastructure challenge as early as possible as the road the engineer is already at the road site fore repair work.