By Nelly Mtema
THE Ministry of Minerals has put in place effective strategies and plans that will enable it to exceed the targeted revenue collections for 2021/2022 financial year, Deputy Minister Professor Shukrani Manya has said.
Prof. Manya said that the ministry planned to collect 650bn/- in this financial year but the amount is expected to exceed due to various efforts taken by his office to boost revenue collection.
He made the assurance here yesterday during a capacity building seminar to members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Energy and Minerals to enable them to monitor the sector performance.
“We are working on a number of avenues in which, if well explored, we will boost revenue collection thus increase the mining sector contribution to the national economy,” he noted.
Speaking during the seminar, the Committee Chairperson, Danstan Kitandula said they were impressed by the involvement of the public in the local content.
He said through the local content aspect, the public had earned and offered services of more than US dollars 500 million in the mining sector.
Mr Kitandula attributed the improvement to the amendments of the mining laws and regulations to ensure that locals benefit from the mining investment.
However, he said, it was high time to incorporate the mining sector with industrial needs as it has come to their attention that majority of the materials needed are still imported.
Moreover, Mr Kitandula stated that the banks should chart out the best modalities in which they may team up with the foreign financial institutions in time of need for issuing loans to mining companies.
“When the local banks find that they cannot offer the required loans to the mining sector, due to limited capital, they must come up with bank syndication with their foreign ones so that they can manage to provide loans to investors in need” he observed.
The committee chairperson reminded the ministry and stakeholders to submit recommendations, if there are gaps and challenges in laws and regulations that hinder the sector growth.
On his part, Acting Executive Secretary of the Tanzania Mining Commission, Engineer Yahaya Samamba said they had organized the seminar to give the parliamentarians a chance to learn about mining related laws, licensing among others, to ensure their effective implementation.
According to him, they believe that, if the law makers are well informed about various issues related to the mining sector, they will be in a better position to take actions and closely monitor the mining activities.