Registering his claims over the delay in National Assembly on Monday, Simanjiro lawmaker James Kinyansi said the government had been dilly dallying for over two years in compensating 15m/- to six people who need to be vacated in the mining township to pave the way for the project to take off.
Kinyansi said the slow pace of implementation of the project was disappointing especially given the fact that only during the period over 2kgs of tanzanite worth 2bn/- were smuggled out of the country.
As if that was not enough in 2014 alone, US$300m worth of tanzanite was smuggled to India, while USD100m was smuggled to Kenya, during that year which Tanzania’s sales of the gemstone were only worth USD38m.
The MPs did not mention what benefits other countries which also had for tanzanite processing factories like India, South Africa, the US and Sri Lanka got, but suffice it to say that the amount of this gemstone smuggled the country via porous routes is highly astounding.
Perhaps it is much more shocking when give the fact that in 2010 the government amended the mining law to enforce partial ban on exports, create more jobs for youths and boost the economy.
However, despite this well intended move there has been more and more smuggling of the gemstone.
The weakness is in the law itself. According to the legislation, tanzanite under 1 gram can be legally exported.
It is six years now, but statistics speak the obverse as the lion's share of rough tanzanite still finds its way overseas, where it has created multi-million-dollar business empires and thousands of jobs.
In Jaipur, India and Colombo, Sri Lanka, for example, tanzanite firms have created more than 250,000 jobs, according to Tanzania Mineral Dealers’ Association (Tamida).
Why? While the ban is on tanzanite above 1 gram, it has reliably been learnt that nearly 99.5 percent of the precious stone’s output weighs less than a gram .
This therefore implies that the state rushed to check on exports of tanzanite that is less than one percent of the entire production.
What does this mean? This means that only 0.5 percent of the mineral is currently processed locally, creating merely 119 jobs, leaving as higher as 99.5 percent being exported in raw form, generating over 250,000 jobs in India and Sri Lanka alone.
Tanzania Minerals Audit Agency (TMAA) tanzanite exports statistics indicate that between 2010 and 2013, the country exported a total of 21,171,460 grams both rough and cut tanzanite gemstone worth only 132.43bn/- or $83m.
Of this figure 21,056,270 grams were rough tanzanite equivalent to 99.45 percent worth 85.70bn/- or $54m, compared to 115,160 grams of cut tanzanite, representing 0.54 percent and valued at 46.73bn/- or $29m.
From the statistics above, it shows that the entire burden of arresting this indusrial anomaly still lies in the government which has relied on this weak legislation while at the same time has been shilly shallying in implementing what it has resolved to do.
It’s bizarre, how could just a compensation of 15m/- to have six people give way to the construction of a tanzanite EPZ complex at Mererani make us lose trillion of shillings through smuggling. Really, there is no rationality in this. Are we not being penny wise, pound foolish?
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