The Ministry of Minerals of Tanzania has surpassed its targeted revenue collection from the Arusha Region. The total collection including taxes, duties, charges paid for getting mining licenses etc aggregated to TZS 2.7bn/- between July last year and June this year. The collection target for this year was fixed at TZS 2.5 billion, which is surpassed. The collection had gone up mostly due to value addition to the minerals by miners and traders before being marketed out of the region or country. Apart, from upping the revenue collection, this also led to a marked improvement in creating gainful employment.
The Tanzanian government is laying considerable importance to value addition of minerals. Towards this, the authorities are insisting on miners procuring mineral-cutting machines since it can add both value and create employment. There are also exhortations from employer organizations to their membership to adhere to laws of the land, pay taxes and comply to other guidelines including safety standards. For instance, Tanzania Mineral Dealers’ Association has recently told its members to cooperate with the government in achieving both fiscal and value addition targets set by the government. It has said that the government has removed many taxes and simplified the tax structure. The industry should respond to these positive measures by not evading taxes and creating more employment through value addition.
