Tanzania’s recently established mineral centers located in the country’s mineral-rich regions has boosted revenue collection to over US $154.8m in the fiscal year 2019/20. This is part of the phases by the government in a move to eliminate mineral smuggling and crack down on tax evasion.
The mineral centres are part of President John Magufuli’s drive to optimize mineral trading to benefit not just multinationals, but also small-scale miners, brokers and dealers and ensuring the country gained more from its natural resources.
The Minister for Minerals, Mr Doto Biteko while presenting the 2019/20 budget said that until February this year, 28 mineral centres had been established across the country. Among the regions are Mwanza, Geita, Chunya, Arusha, Namanga, Singida-Sekenke, Dar es Salaam, Kahama, Shinyanga, Ruvuma, Katavi, Tanga, Iringa, Manyara, Singida, Shinyanga, Dodoma, Kigoma, Tabora, Mbeya, Mara and Songwe.
Minister Biteko explained that the centres were intended to provide means of formalizing a trading system, giving small-scale miners access to a government-regulated market where they could directly and legally trade gold without the necessity of travelling to major cities.
In addition, the mineral buying centres will allow the government to collect more levies from both miners and businesses. He also noted that the establishment of the hubs had addressed major challenges that faced the mining sector for a long time, including small-scale miners who lacked places to sell their minerals, as well as the presence of illegal mining and smuggling of minerals.
Benefits of te mining centers
According to the minister, the mineral centres have ensured all constraints in the mineral trade chain are removed and promote the industry and benefit Tanzanians individually and collectively. Further, the market centres have brought about significant change in the mining sector, including accelerating the growth of the sector by 12.6% from January to September 2019, compared to 0.9% of 2018.
The mineral centres have also brought about other benefits to the people, including the creation of employment opportunities and an increase in incomes for small-scale miners. He explained that he commended President John Magufuli and his government for the great strides that had been made in the country.
