Is mess over EFDs impossible to end?

By Editor

Editorial cartoon

At last traders resumed conducting businesses on Wednesday after almost a week of closure to protest the use of Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs).

 

They were also protesting against the court action to put behind bars their embattled leader, Johnson Minja. Apparently he had been accused of inciting his colleagues to close their businesses to protest the government order to use the EFDs.

 

The weeklong closure of businesses has caused untold problems to both customers and the traders themselves. This is because the strike meant that business operations had to come to a standstill.

 

For there were retail traders from as far as upcountry regions and neighbouring countries who depended on buying goods from wholesale shops in Dar es Salaam and other urban areas in the country. However, they could not do so because the shops were closed.

 

Consequently, the retailers had to wait for the wholesale shops to open, as the hours of waiting turned to almost a week. As a result they had to incur more costs for food and accommodation than they anticipated.

 

Obviously, as a trader’s objective is to make money, the added costs would be passed on to final consumers, including the poor man on-the-street. 

 

Economic sense demands that this extra cost will have to added to the goods meaning that they will have to be sold at slightly  higher prices. Doing so would recoup the loss incurred through waiting for a longer time than earlier to purchase the goods.  

 

In other words, because of the traders strike people’s lives are being made more difficult as they will have to dig deeper into their pockets to purchase commodities necessary for their daily lives.

 

But this should not have happened at all if appropriate measures were taken by the powers that be to avoid the traders’ strike. It is strange that complaints about the use of EFDs have taken  more than three months since they erupted as soon as the EFDs were introduced in January this year.

 

This is a long time for the government to take in dealing with one issue, unless its machinery has gone to sleep. We wonder what is so difficult about it; is it that the traders do not want to use the EFDs or simply government intransigency?

 

Whatever it is, however, it does not augur well for the future of this country. The issue of EFDs has to be solved once  and for all and fast too.

There are many other more pressing issues facing this country which need the attention of the government than the issue of EFDs. To say this should not be taken as belittling it, but we don’t see why it could take the time and resources it has taken this far.

 

Could there be a hidden agenda, taking into account that there are more important events in front of us this year?  One is the referendum on the new constitution and the other  is the General Elections to be held in October.

All in all, no stone should be left unturned to see to it that the issue of EFDs is solved once and for all.