Tanzania to continue charging 25pc tax on Kenyan goods

Kenyan businesses will continue paying a 25 per cent levy on confectioneries exported to Tanzania for the foreseeable future.

This will go on until Tanzania is satisfied that the industrial sugar used to manufacture the sweets, biscuits and chocolates from Kenya is not zero-rated in terms of import duty.

According to Tanzania’s Commissioner for Customs and Excise Ben Usaje, a report that was prepared by the East African Community (EAC), which was supposed to shed light on Tanzania’s tax-cheating allegations, was not conclusive.

Duty-free sugar

Mr Usaje on Wednesday said Tanzania wants the EAC experts who inspected Kenyan firms that manufacture confectioneries to repeat the exercise.

“I can tell you for a fact that we know Kenya was not telling the truth on the duty-free industrial sugar that was used to manufacture these sweets,” he told The Standard during an interview in Dar es Salaam.

“We will keeping charging the Kenyan manufacturers the 25 per cent levy until we are satisfied with that EAC experts are thorough in their inspection,” he added.

No pointer

Tanzania has trashed the report, terming it vague and indecipherable. Usaje claimed the report’s findings gave no pointer on whether Kenyan confectioneries specifically used the sugar under scrutiny or not.