Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Illicit livestock trade causes 263bn/- loss, Mpina reports, action beckons

DAILY NEWS Reporter in Arusha
THE government loses 263bn/- annually on illegal exportation of livestock and importation of livestock products, which lead to unfair competition for both local and international stakeholders in the sector.

The Minister for Livestock and Fisheries, Mr Luhaga Mpina, said yesterday during the livestock auction at Namanga in Longido District, Arusha Region, that the government had been losing revenue through illegal exportation of livestock.
The minister was speaking as he launched a special national operation dubbed ‘Operesheni Nzagamba 2018’ to control revenues in the livestock sector.
According to Minister Mpina, the operation will cover ports, livestock auctioning areas, airports, borders, supermarkets and all abattoirs across the country.
He said his ministry had discovered that some traders had been engaged in illegal cross-border trading in livestock, animal drugs and other products.He added that recently, a total of 22,000 goats were seized at Namanga border being transported to Kenya.
“We have increased revenues to 200m/- in a period of one month after starting a close follow up on livestock businesses,” he said.
According to Mr Mpina, the early approximation indicates that a total of 1.6 cattle are illegally exported from the country annually, occasioning loss to the government of 56.4bn/- He added that on leather business, the country lost 87.6bn/- annually the annual loss related to milk and meat was 120bn/-.
Mr Mpina said the government would impose heavy fines on traders who would be arrested while in the process of transporting livestock outside the country illegally.
“We always collect 20,000/- per each cow and 5,000/- per goat that is transported outside the country, contrary to that the traders will suffer the consequences,” he said.

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