Tanzania Increases Export Permits By 93 Percent To 52,000 Shillings

By Lynnet Okumu / Published June 27, 2022 | 12:48 pm

KEY POINTS

According to border officials, Tanzanian Authorities have increased the initial cost of acquiring a trade permit from 27,000 to 52,000 shillings per truck.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The back and forth cold war between the two countries was resolved when the current Tanzanian President, Samia Suluhu, visited Nairobi for a bilateral meeting with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2021.

Tanzania has hit Kenyan traders with double export permits of up to 93 percent, a move that is likely to stir another round of trade dispute between the two East African countries.

“Tanzania has increased the charges that it levies on the export permit to 52,000 shillings per truck, creating confusion at the border, but activities are slowly coming back to normal,” Said an officer of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

According to border officials, Tanzanian Authorities have increased the initial cost of acquiring a trade permit from 27,000 to 52,000 shillings per truck.

The traders claim that the new requirement, which caught them off-guard, is the best explanation for the huge snarl-up of tracks moving to Kenya at the border for the last week.

Despite the surety of the Kenya Bureau of Statistics that they had resumed clearing the trucks last week, hundreds of trucks were still left stranded at the border last week as truck owners updated their export permits to meet the new requirements.

The move projected to affect cross-border trade between Kenya and Tanzania might have a long-term effect on millers who depend largely on Tanzania for maize imports to meet the current shortage of the commodity in the country.

According to data from Kenya’s agriculture ministry, the country imported maize valued at 4.2 billion shillings($38.18 million) from Tanzania in 2019. In 2020, it imported about 277,350 tonnes of maize (3.1 million 90kg bags), with about 95 percent coming from Uganda and Tanzania.

In January 2021, Kenya imported over 450,000 bags (90kg) of maize from both Tanzania and Uganda and another 300,000 bags in February.

Currently, there is a shortage of maize supply to the Kenyan market from the regional markets as most stocks from Uganda are heading to South Sudan, where they fetch a reasonable price.

As such, millers are now importing the grain from Malawi and Zambia, with a 90-kilogram bag landing at 5,200 shillings in Nairobi.

The maize shortage has already forced half of the small-scale millers to shut down since June because they lacked the financial muscles to import the.

Kenyan farmers are worried that the new export duty requirement will not only affect the importation of maize from Tanzania but also other products such as onions, vegetables, milk, and sugar, which the country cannot produce enough to meet the growing demand.

In 2020, Tanzania imposed a 25 percent import duty on Kenyan confectionery ranging from juice, ice cream, chocolate, sweets, and chewing gums. The then Tanzanian government claimed that Kenya had used zero-rated industrial sugar imports to produce the products.

In the same year, Kenya also banned Tanzanian tour vans from accessing the Maasai Mara National Reserve, arguing that the latter had prohibited Kenyan operators from accessing the Serengeti National Park.

However, the back and forth cold war between the two countries was resolved when the current Tanzanian President, Samia Suluhu, visited Nairobi for a bilateral meeting with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2021.