DRC, Uganda engaged on road user fee

By HENRY LYIMO

THE Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA) is engaging the DR Congo and Uganda to harmonise road user charges after Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi agreed to lower the fee to 152 US dollars.

The CCTTFA Chief Executive Secretary, Capt. Dieudonne Dukundane told reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday that they were engaging DR Congo and Uganda to harmonise the fees which have been complained to add costs of transport, a key component which affects intra-regional trade.
"We are still engaging DR Congo and Uganda to see how we can harmonise the charges," he said on the sidelines of a regional workshop organised by UNCTAD and CCTTFA to support the agency and Central Corridor member states to develop and implement a sustainable Freight Transport Strategy. Cross-border traders are complaining high road user charges in some Central Corridor member states are inflating transport costs which account for 40 per cent of prices of imported products in the region.
Capt. Dukundane said they were also engaging DR Congo authorities to harmonise visa fee across the border of the vast Central African country which borders Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia on its western border. He said visa fee Tanzania and Uganda nationals entering the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been reduced by 50 per cent from 100 US dollars to 50 US dollars.
Efforts are ongoing to harmonise and better off the practice across all partner states, he said. According to him, partner states were enjoying benefits of improved transport infrastructure and efficiency that have contributed to reducing transit time and cost of transport.
Truck transit time from Dar es Salaam to Kigali, Bujumbura, Kampala, Bukavu and Goma has dropped from an average of one week in 2012 to between three to four days in 2017, he said. "About 95 per cent of Central Corridor regional road networks are in a perfect condition.
Weighbridges, Customs centres and police checkpoints for transit trucks have been reduced from above 40 to merely 3 on Tanzania side saving more than 70 per cent of weighbridge crossing time," he said.