BAGAMOYO District Commissioner, Ms Halima Okash has issued a stern warning to smugglers who import goods through unregistered ports along the district’s coastline that their days are numbered.
The DC furiously warned following the smuggling activities despite Tanzania Revenues Authority (TRA) seizing and destroying several smuggled goods through the unregistered ports along the Bagamoyo coastline.
“Stop importing goods through shoddy ports instead use official entry points,” Ms Okash said.
Additionally, she said the smuggled goods leave standards and the health of consumers hangs in the balance while the government loses revenues.
The DC issued the warning to the smugglers over the weekend when she met with TRA officials who were in Bagamoyo for taxpayer education sensitisation session.
She said imported goods must pay the rightful taxes, saying whoever is nabbed would face severe consequences, including confiscating both goods and vessels with perpetrators charged according to the law of the land.
“So, obey the law without waiting for coercive measures for your good and the development of the country,” she said.
Last June, TRA nabbed 507 bales of textiles illegally imported by a businessman through smuggling routes in Bagamoyo Township.
TRA Bagamoyo’s Manager Mr Brighton Ernest said that they decided to conduct a taxpayer education campaign as one of the ways of combating the growing number of smugglers who import various products to coastal regions.
TRA believes that if well educated, Bagamoyo residents and traders would comply with the laws of the land and help the government curb importation of substandard goods while encouraging payment of the much needed taxes.
Also, in 2019, TRA destroyed illegally imported products worth 26m/- that included 12 dozens of batteries, 400 car and motorcycle tires, nine bales of second-hand clothes, 960 litres of lubricants, 300 litres of kerosene, two refrigerators, 12 refrigerator compressors and 30 kilos of powdered soaps.
