DEPUTY Minister for Agriculture Hon. Hussein Bashe on Thursday 25th February 2021, paid a courtesy call to TAHA where he had an opportunity to engage some key players in horticultural industry value chain and later on proceed to field visit. In a round table discussion with Hon Bashe organized by TAHA, with few seed multiplication companies, the industry investors presented their concerns on the general business environment and investment climate in the country, citing challenges on VAT charges on exports, work permit issues, delays on VAT refund claims, unfair tax assessments, saying all these culminating into the unpredictability of investment climate. After a discussion, the horticulture stakeholders under the auspices of TAHA and Hon. Bashe agreed that the Ministry of Agriculture will soon convene a meeting with the Ministry of Finance and Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) to deliberate and reach consensus on the precise interpretation of the seed multiplication process in favor of agriculture activities. The Ministry of Agriculture has requested TAHA to collect all the pending and rejected work permit applications from horticultural companies so that the Ministry can present them to the Prime Minister's Office responsible for Labour to ensure that all the required experts are granted with work permits. “The Ministry of Agriculture will convene a meeting with the Ministries of Finance, Transport and Logistics to discuss the possibilities of waiving some of the airport-related taxes and charges for cargo freighters as an incentive to attract cargo operators to Tanzania” Hon. Bashe promised. TAHA secretariat is currently making a close follow-up on the implementation of the above and other resolutions for the benefit of the entire industry value chain. In the meantime; Hon. Bashe after an indoor meeting, he proceeded to a field visit to Siha District, in the Kilimanjaro region to assess the progress of the Government's interventions in the areas invaded by locusts. He also made a familiarization tour to the Avocado exporting company to get a glimpse of production, harvesting, and sorting of avocado are done. In yet another move, Hon. Bashe pledged that his Ministry would continue engaging the responsible Authorities in China to ensure the bilateral agreement between the two countries is signed to allow the exportation of avocados from Tanzania to the Chinese market.
