By Mary Ramadhani
THE government has
trashed claims circulating in social media outlets that it underpaid
artisanal
miner Saniniu Laizer for the large Tanzanite gemstones he
mined in Manyara Region recently.
"The Tanzanian
government will never steal from its citizen," Minister for Minerals
Dotto Biteko remarked in response to the baseless claims from some
individuals, including outgoing Arusha Urban MP on the Chadema ticket
Godbless Lema.
Mr Biteko said the
government's focus was to protect and support its citizens to realize
their dreams and attain higher standards of living.
The government,
through the Ministry of Finance, bought the two gemstones weighing 14
kilogrammes in total at the cost of a whopping 7.7bn/-.
"If our aim was to steal from Mr Laizer, we could have bought the stones before their value had been established," he stated.
Mr Biteko further
said that, the overnight billionaire had been in the mining industry for
a long time and was deeply knowledgeable on the evaluation of gem
stones.
"He is not someone you can steal from," he asserted.
However, he
explained that many who were claiming that the government had swindled
Mr Laizer were most likely basing their claims on the prices of already
cut and polished stones, which is different from the price of rough
ones.
He pointed that
pricing minerals considers four C's, which are carat, colour, clarity,
and cut; and the price increases once a rough stone is well cut and
polished.
This causes the price to shoot up by even thirty times.
"This is why we
insist to people in the mining industry that the process of adding value
to the gem stones should be done in the country. This will open the
scope of our markets and sell at a much higher price," he said.
He further
explained that the price of minerals was set by the world market and not
a specific country, and that Tanzania reduces ten per cent to help open
the scope for people to do business in the country.
He went further to
point out that minerals in the country were now being noticed because
the mining industry was being regulated.
Plus, on the
strength of President John Magufuli' stance, miners have realized that
smuggling minerals was detrimental rather than beneficial.
"The presence of
the wall has also made it hard for smugglers to do so. We would be
misleading ourselves if we declared that there are no longer smugglers.
It is a fact, though that smuggling has been reduced to a large extent,"
he said.
He explained, too, that mineral trading hubs had also contributed to the reduction of smuggling of gem stones.
"Previously, we
used to accuse miners of smuggling minerals, but we realized that it was
our fault, as we hadn't established a system that would restrict them
to do so; and had imposed a lot of taxes including 18 per cent VAT and
five per cent withholding tax, yet there was no market to which they
could sell the stones," he elaborated.
The removal of taxes and establishing markets brought relief to the miners who saw no need of smuggling minerals, he said.
Mr Biteko reiterated that the system had simplified many things in the business environment for the miners.
Mr Biteko said that
in the absence of markets, there would be many illegal buyers who
cannot be traced as well as where they would sell the minerals, thereby
creating room for raising prices.
Once you get minerals, they should be sold in mineral trading hubs, he emphasized.
He pointed out that
the benefit of the hubs was that the prices were fair to buyers and the
sellers, as opposed to the previous situation whereby small scale
miners were manipulated and prices were hiked just to benefit the buyers
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