Dar es Salaam. Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) said yesterday that all was set for it to start inspecting vehicles locally despite concerns from some stakeholders that the move may see some clients paying more for their imported cars.
TBS announced recently that inspection of vehicles would be conducted locally starting March 1, 2021 but stakeholders believe the system may see importers paying more in rectifying the faults that will have been identified after the car arrives in the country.
Traditionally, vehicles have been inspected in Japan and Dubai and this meant that if it was found to be faulty, it was actually the seller who would rectify the problems before the vehicle is shipped.
“By inspecting the vehicle locally, it is actually the importer who will pay for the costs of rectifying the vehicle in garages in case it is found to be faulty,” said Mr Emanuel Ngereja, the managing director of E&D Tanzania Ltd. He was also worried over the influx of unqualified vehicles in the country, given that they won’t be inspected in their countries of origin.
“We are currently paying $150 as inspection fee, per car and Tanzania gets 30 percent of the money. This is a relief to the country for revenue increment, because I am worrying that the sellers might start exporting faulty vehicles,” he argued.
The operation manager of Wagon Logistics Tanzania Ltd, Mr Clemency Kihwele, said the move was genuinely good for the country, but it was still complicated for stakeholders.
“We are concerned about TBS’ efficiency on inspecting the vehicles and how it can interrupt with other regulatory institutions. We have only seven days to clear and move the vehicles out of the port after paying release charges to the taxman, delivery order fees to the shipping lines and port charges to Tanzania Port Authority (TPA). Who is going to pay the additional costs if the inspection brings negative results?” he queried.
But in response, TBS said the meeting it had organized with dealers in Dar es Salaam yesterday, was meant to collect their views on how to execute the project smoothly, noting that the government had already made the final decision to adopt the local inspection mode.
“We were ordered to implement this exercise from March 1, 2021 and we are prepared enough. We had already procured the inspection equipment and set inspection areas at the Dar es Salaam port,” said TBS’ quality management director Lazaro Msasalaga. According to him, there will be 11 inspection areas with the capacity of inspecting more than 380,160 vehicles per year.
“We have procured mobile equipment to start with, but later, permanent inspection machines will be installed. The mobile equips spend only quarter-hour to inspect a car, inspecting 1,056 vehicles per day and 31,680 per month,” he noted.
The vehicle inspection activity will not interrupt with other shipping and clearance activities at the port, according to him, because the inspection can be done before or after clearance processes.
“After inspection, no car will remain at the port. We will offer an inspection certificate and a sticker to a qualified car and give a specific time to the unqualified vehicles to undergo the repair before being awarded the certificate and sticker,” he said.
There will be a special area outside the port for unqualified vehicles to be re-inspected after being repaired.
“I promise you (stakeholders) that you will not regret this decision. The government is going to save 70 percent of the $150 inspection fee that was charged in foreign countries and more than 300 jobs are expected,” he said.
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