MPs seek tax review on wheat, cooking oil to protect consumers

Presenting the budget in Parliament last week, the Finance and Planning minister, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba, had proposed to continue to grant a duty remission at a duty rate of 10 percent instead of 35 percent on imported wheat grain for one year.

This, he said, was meant to reduce the cost of production for processors of wheat flour in the country and relieve citizens from the high prices of wheat products.

He also proposed to grant a stay of application of the East African Community Common External Tariff (EAC-CET) of zero percent and apply a duty rate of 10 percent for one year on crude vegetable oils of soya beans, groundnuts, coconuts, mustard, and linseed in an effort to align with sunflower, cotton, and other crude oils that attract 10 percent so as to promote domestic production of vegetable oils.

Also, he said the government will continue to grant stay of application of the EAC CET rate of 35 percent and apply a duty rate of 25 percent or $500/MT, whichever is higher, for one year on refined vegetable oils in an effort to protect and promote the processing of vegetable oils in the country using locally grown seeds and imported crude palm oil, as well as employment creation.

In parliament, the discussion was heated as MPs tried to protect the interests of local farmers and end consumers.

Contributing to the debate, Singida East Member of Parliament, Mr Miraji Mtaturu (CCM), said that the government had decided to come up with a strategy through the Ministry of Agriculture to produce seeds in order to save a lot of money that was being used to import cooking oil.

“We brought the seeds, the people were empowered, and as we speak, people have harvested enough; the price of a bag of sunflowers has now dropped, and my people are now complaining and asking the government to help them get profit,” he said.

He said in the budget, the government plans to reduce the tax on refined oil by 25 percent instead of 35 percent, the latter of which they thought would be the one to be considered.

He asked the Ministry of Finance to help the Ministry of Agriculture’s efforts by returning 35 percent of the tax to cooking oil to help reduce importations.

Member of Parliament for Mafinga, Cosato Chumi (CCM), asked the government, in matters to do with wheat and cooking oil, to issue permits to the processors of wheat.

“I listened to the minister of finance say, ... ‘the move would increase prices’. Even when the tax was at zero, the price of oil did not decrease, and thus the end consumer did not benefit,” he said.

Regarding wheat, Mr Festo Sanga, a lawmaker for Makete constituency (CCM), suggested that the Minister of Finance ignore the proposals to lower the tax on imported wheat from 35 percent to 10 percent to sustain local industries.

Arusha Urban legislator, Mr Mrisho Gambo demanded that the government review the cost of mobile data bundles that were a burden to the citizens.

He said in 2020, if one bought a Sh15,000 data bundle, one got 10GB; today, for that amount of money, some telecoms offer 7.38GB, while others offer 7.2GB and others 7.2GB.

He said the companies have not increased the price, but they have reduced the data bundle.