By James Kamala
THE Bank of Tanzania (BoT) said yesterday that bringing in and sending money outside the country is free for any individual, as long as laws and regulations are observed.
"Tanzanians and others intending to bring in or send money outside the country should produce sufficient evidence as required by the law," the Central Bank's Director of Economic Research and Policy Dr Suleiman Misango said in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
The Central Bank's clarification comes amid recent misleading information from some politicians that the government has prohibited Tanzanians and others from bringing in or sending money outside the country.
He added that bringing in and sending out money was free to every citizen but the law had set the highest amount that must be accompanied with enough evidence as well as their beneficiaries.
Dr Misango said for instance if a person wants to move a cash amount exceeding 10,000 US dollars, he/she should provide details and evidence regarding the source and intention of the funds.
This is according to the Foreign Exchange act 1992 and its regulations of 1998 and related amendments, he said, adding that is an international practice meant to control illicit inflows.
Dr Misango said Tanzania signed various international treaties aimed at controlling illicit inflow-- linked to financing terrorism, money laundering which are detrimental to the economy.
The BoT Economic Research and Policy Director urged citizens to seek right information and clarifications on issues related to the economy from the Central Bank and other government institutions.
Moreover, Dr Misango said all the economic indicators show that the country's economy was performing steadily despite challenges of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
"Various interventions taken by the government during the outbreak of the global pandemic have helped the country's economy to continue outperforming," he said while revealing some key monetary policy measures to protect financial sector stability and cushion the economy from Covid-19.
The measures include lowering the statutory minimum reserve requirement for banks from 7per cent to 6per cent to provide lenders with additional liquidity.
BoT also reduced the discount rate the level of interest at which commercial banks borrow from the Central Bank from 7 per cent to 5 per cent to allow them to access cheaper loans, hence signalling lower lending interest rates.
The national economy has been growing at an average of 6.8 per cent in the past five years and last year along it grew at an average of 7 per cent.
All these efforts made Tanzania to graduate to a new status of lower-middle income economy, a feat that has been achieved five years ahead of schedule as declared by the World Bank in July, this year.
Tanzania enters into that bracket of middle-income countries with Gross National Income (GNI) per capita between 1,036 US dollars and 4,045 US dollars.
This new income status for Tanzania implies improved living standards by way of higher quantity and quality of goods and services consumed. Others are better quantity and quality of social services like health, education and water, lower mortality and morbidity rates, higher literacy rates, lower poverty levels as well as more quantity and quality of economic infrastructure.
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