He also directed the company to first of all pay the government its denied and swindled revenue because it lied to the State for a long period of time on its collections and taxes.
The president equally directed relevant authorities to see into that his orders are obeyed and implemented before the government resumes negotiations with the investor.
The president made the observation after receiving a committee report chaired by Prof Nehemiah Osoro, that was tasked alongside the first one on mineral and sand theft that has been ongoing clandestinely outside the country.
He said it was high time legal experts in the country teamed up with other institutions in the country to protect interests of investments in Tanzania, adding: “This company called Acacia, call them first and demand the embezzled money, even before you register them. When they agree and become cooperative that they have been stealing and repent,and ready to pay back, we shall be ready for negotiations. I am emphasizing that for now no more ferrying mineral sand out of the country.”
The president also directed the Minister for Constitution and Legal Affairs, Prof Palamagamba Kabudi to organize a team of honest and patriotic legal experts to verify and make necessary changes in all mining contracts and table it in Parliament for legislators to debate and make recommendations.
He further said the current mining contracts should be taken to the ongoing parliamentary sessions in Dodoma even if it would involve the legislators extending Bungee session because it is for the benefit of the country.
The President expressed dismay at Central of Tanzania commonly addressed as Bank of Tanzania (BoT) for having been in business with Acacia and failed to notice their financial discrepancy as well as Ministry of Energy and Minerals without realizing that they are not legally registered in the country.
Making an analogy of the theft, JMP posed: “If you have your wealth for example, and you have taken your cotton abroad, and you are certain that you have ferried known tonnes, and you are satisfied… but with minerals, we are seeing them as unvalued?
The Ministry of Energy and Minerals never spotted this? You work with someone since 1997 and you direct TMAA to verify their business and you fail to ask him even a day about his legal document?
In the report, it was stated that the government incurred about 108trl/- as a result of the company(s) avoiding paying different taxes since 1998 to-date. The report was made open by Prof Nehemiah Osoro, while reading it the State House today, presided over by different government officials as well as reporters.
Prof Osoro said the amount was arrived at after his committee’s calculations on the theft by the mining company(s) by cheating on their taxes paid, collections, and royalties as well as other revenue meant to the government.
The Prof further said a total of 44,277 containers with contents valued at 132.56trl/- minimum to 229.9trl/- maximum was shipped outside the country by the company(s).
He said in addition to the amount estimated of the minerals’ values, data that was presented to Tanzania Minerals Audit Agency (TMAA) was not correct, with some government officials conniving in the theft.
DailyNews
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