Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s tax revenue collection rose by 7.5 per cent in the 2017/18 fiscal year compared to the same period a year before, the Tanzania Revenue Collection Authority (TRA) said on Monday, July 16 this year. TRA collected Sh15.5 trillion between July 2017 and June 2018, according to TRA taxpayer services and education director, Mr Richard Kayombo said. During the financial year 2016/17, TRA garnered a total of Sh14.4 trillion. He attributed the increase to increased taxpayers' compliance, fueled by the taxman’s transparency in its dealings. "With transparency in tax collection and expenditure, taxpayers are convinced regarding the need to pay,” he said. In June 2018 alone, the taxman collected a total of Sh1.5 trillion compared to Sh1.4 trillion recorded in same period a year before. Source The Citizen

Workers at this shipyard in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo are putting the finishing touches to a newly constructed boat that will sail one of Africa’s Great Lakes – Lake Kivu. The 58 meter-long boat is the 13th from a series of locally assembled boats named Emmanuel, by its makers. They have become a significant mode of transport from the lake side city of Goma to Bukavu, as an alternative to a journey that could take up to five days by road. The Emmanuel boats were a brainchild of a Congolese engineer called Emmanuel Semmanyenzi. The vessels are assembled in Goma by a group of local engineers and support staff, most of whom are self-taught craftsmen trained in the art of building pirogues that have sailed the lake for centuries. They use material imported from Europe and Asia. It takes about one year to completely assemble a boat. “All the equipment is imported, we don’t’ manufacture anything here, we import it. But everything is assembled here, we import and install here,” said construction foreman, Ponyo Baruti. Congo suffers from poor infrastructure and unreliable public transport. These boats have become a lifeline for people who have to cross Lake Kivu regularly to trade and connect with family and friends on the either side. A boat leaves daily from the port of Goma to Bukavu, and back, ferrying between hundreds of passengers and tonnes of goods, for a distance of about 130 kilometers. “We have no roads in Congo, the authorities do...

Tea exports to major markets improved marginally in the five months to May compared with the same period last year, highlighting Kenya’s reliance on traditional buyers who account for over 75 per cent of the market. Industry performance report from Tea Directorate shows the volume grew to 152 million kilogrammes (Kgs) from 146 million kgs in a similar period last year, representing a four per cent growth. Pakistan, the largest market accounting for over 30 per cent of the total tea exports, recorded a one per cent increase, with Egypt, which is the second largest buyer of the beverage registering a 15 per cent decline. Kenyan tea was shipped to 56 export destinations compared to 39 countries in the same period last year. The 10 export destinations, mostly traditional markets, accounted for 80 per cent of the total shipment. Kenya has been relying on Pakistan, Egypt, UK, Sudan, Yemen among others but the directorate is now scouting for new markets. It has been banking on emerging markets and an increase in local consumption to improve sales and boost farmers’ earnings. Significantly higher tea imports from Kenya were recorded amongst the emerging markets of Turkey, Somalia, Indonesia, Canada, Djibouti, Germany, and Ukraine. Kenya has also been trying to promote local consumption but growth has been slow. In the four months to April, consumption stood at 12.7 million kilos from 12.3 million kilos in the corresponding period last year. Last month the Tea Directorate led a marketing campaign in Russia where Kenya...

The Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) is kick-starting preparations for the construction of a 540-kilometre pipeline between Lamu and Isiolo. KPC says it will start undertaking a study on the pipeline just as it completes the new Mombasa-Nairobi line The pipeline will be among the largest projects for the State-run company alongside the just-completed Sh48 billion Line 5, between Mombasa and Nairobi, which was plagued by delays and escalation of costs during its construction. The refined petroleum products pipeline will be part of the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) corridor - later to be extended to other parts of the country as well as beyond Kenyan borders, to Ethiopia. Other projects on the corridor include a highway, railway and crude oil pipeline that will be used in moving oil from Lokichar to Lamu for export The Lamu Road Consortium (led by South African firms, Group Five Proprietary and the Development Bank of Southern Africa) has already been given the go-ahead to construct a 530-kilometre Lamu-Garissa-Isiolo road under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programme. The first berths of the Lamu port are also under construction. KPC said it would start doing a feasibility study for the pipeline between Lamu and Isiolo by end of this year. Petroleum and Mining Cabinet Secretary John Munyes said the pipeline would be a ‘game changer’, opening up parts of the country that have for long been neglected and are devoid of infrastructure. “We now need to undertake a study on a new pipeline from Lamu...

Transporters want Rwanda to drop its biannual inspection of cross-border cargo trucks in line with the rest of the region’s more convenient yearly process. In Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, renewals of certificates of roadworthiness are carried out after a year, but Rwanda requires truck inspection every six months. The Rwandans say this hurts their revenues and competitiveness. “Since we are cross-border transporters, our trucks spend days and months abroad and by the time they return, and the inspection certificate has expired, we have to ground the trucks until another certificate is available,” said Abdul Ndarubogoye, the chairman of the Rwanda Cross Border Transporters Association. The transporters complain about delays at the inspection centres of between four and 10 days. There are costs of feeding and accommodation for drivers during such waiting period, costs that are passed on to importers making transportation of containers to Rwanda expensive. While the Rwandans have boosted their fleets to compete for the regional cargo transport business, the share of foreign trucks delivering goods to the country remains high. Source The East Africa

Tanzania has secured more than $400 million from the Trade and Development Bank (TDB) to fund part of its standard gauge railway and a 318MW gas plant. This will be the first time President John Magufuli's administration has turned to a financier for a railway project, having said this year that his government has enough funds to finance the construction of the $2.5 billion line. The development also comes barely three months after the country turned to the African Development Bank to finance two of its major infrastructure projects — the 2,100MW Stieglers Gorge hydroelectric plant and the modernisation of the Dodoma Airport. On Tuesday, TDB President Admassu Tadesse said the bank, formerly known as Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, had allocated the funds to help Dar es Salaam push forward with its railway and energy infrastructure projects. “So far our bank has allocated $200 million for the SGR Central Corridor project and another $200 million that will go towards the gas power plant,” said Mr Admassu. The regional development bank chief had a meeting with Tanzania’s Finance Minister Dr Philip Mpango and his energy counterpart Dr Melard Kalemani, which centred on the financing and implementation of the two projects. “We are ready and willing to support Tanzania in its execution of development projects in the country. As at March this year, we had implemented more than 10 projects worth $285 million in Tanzania’s banking, agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure sectors,” said Mr Admassu. Documents seen by The EastAfrican show...

Kenya’s trade deficit nearly hit Sh500 billion in the first five months of the year, official statistics show, signalling pressure on the shilling and slowing down growth in new jobs. The deficit – the gap between imports and exports – widened by 8.66 per cent to Sh494.26 billion between January and May from Sh454.86 billion in similar period in 2017, data released last week by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicate. Imports increased by nearly Sh58.12 billion, or 8.26 per cent, to Sh761.28 billion, while exports rose by 7.53 per cent to Sh267.02 billion. A persistently higher demand for imports than exports may mean Kenyan jobs are being lost to factories in major source markets such as China and India which together shipped in goods worth Sh249.57 billion in the five-month period. “There’s an impact on jobs because some of the imports coming from the Far East such as India and China are textiles products which are quite cheaper and that’s hurting the local market,” Genghis Capital senior research analyst Churchill Ogutu said on phone. “Time and again, the government has been trying to revamp that sector (textiles), but with the cheaper imports (it has not been successful) and something has to be done to arrest that trend.” The shilling has nonetheless been relatively stable, averaging 100.67 units to the dollar in May from 102.92 in January, thanks to strong forex reserves. Source Business Daily

The opening of the bigger Mombasa-Nairobi petroleum pipeline has now paved the way for laying of more feeder pipes to interior towns across the country in what is expected to take long distance trucks off the roads. The Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) on Wednesday switched on the 20-inch pipe that will run parallel to the ageing 14-inch line that had suffered partial blockages, restricting fuel flow and causing supply delays. The new line will now enable speedy evacuation of fuel from Mombasa port and cut waiting time and costs. “The line will eliminate hundreds of trucks daily, safeguarding against road degradation and environmental pollution arising from continued trucking of products,” said KPC Managing Director Joe Sang. Construction of the new pipeline was dogged by years of delays and cost overruns that are currently under investigation by various State agencies. Mr Sang expects the larger line to slash demurrage charges payable to shipping lines whenever imported fuel is not discharged on time, costs that are passed on to consumers. The pipeline company last year conducted feasibility studies on the plan to devolve the pipeline network to counties.

NAIROBI, KENYA: Regional experts investigating manufacturers on suspicion that they imported industrial sugar have cleared Kenyan companies of wrongdoing. The Ugandan and Tanzanian experts who were in the country from June 25 to June 28 say that only table sugar in excess of Sh31 billion was imported under the duty-free window. “There was a surplus of 312,469 tonnes of sugar for direct home use in Kenya. Sugar for industrial use was not imported under the gazette notice,” said the letter signed by EAC Director General Customs and Trade, Kenneth Bagamuhunda. Suspicion Kenyan products including cakes, sweets, ice cream and even juices had been slapped with a 25 per cent duty on suspicion that sugar imported under the duty-free window was being used by manufacturers. It did not help that Rai Group of Companies Chairman Jaswant Rai, while appearing before a Parliamentary committee, accused some local firms of selling industrial sugar to consumers. “I, for sure, know…forget one bag….not one kilo went to factory for processing,” claimed Mr Rai, who has been at the centre of the storm. The experts have also called on Tanzania to give preference to Kenyan lubricants sold by Oil Libya, Total and Shell Vivo. Kenyan firms were also angered by the lack of preferential treatment on textiles, edible oil, cement and lubricants. For those products, only firms that use locally-sourced raw materials are allowed preferential treatment. The experts said brands such as Elianto from Bidco, Risnun and Captain Cook from Kapa Oil met the criteria of...

Regional economies have allocated a third of their individual budgets in the new financial year to infrastructure projects, aiming to boost economic activity and spur growth. Of the $15.8 billion going to development projects, Kenya allocated $6.25 billion (39.5 per cent), followed by Tanzania at $5.3 billion, then Uganda at $3.05 billion and Rwanda at $1.28 billion. Kenya reduced its allocation from $7.4 billion in the 2017/18 fiscal year. Tanzania’s allocation increased from $5.27 billion in the year ending June 30. Uganda had set aside $1.32 billion, while Rwanda had earmarked $924 million for development expenditure last year. The projects range from airport upgrades to aircraft purchases, modernisation of road and railway networks, and energy generation. Tanzania says it will prioritise the construction of its Central Railway Line under the standard gauge railway project, for which it has budgeted $3.14 billion, with about half of it paid to the contractor. Kenya has allocated $747 million in the new financial year for the construction of Phase 2A of its SGR, from Nairobi to Naivasha in the Central Rift. Uganda is juggling between upgrading its metre gauge railway and initial work on its SGR, which is currently at the land compensation stage. Uganda Railways Corporation took over the operation of the metre gauge railway, after the termination of the Rift Valley Railways concession. Railway services on the Eastern Route resumed in February, and they reinstated the passenger rail service in the Kampala Metropolitan Area. Ugandan Finance Minister Matia Kasaija reiterated the country’s...