He said he would submit the list to the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Commissioner General's office for action.
The President, who made a surprise visit to the Dar es Salaam port yesterday, was explicit that once he submits the list to TRA boss Harry Kitilya, he would want to see action taken against the culprits immediately.
He said TRA officers at the scanning section, popularly known as TISCAN "are playing dirty games" for personal interests, causing huge losses to the government.
Giving details, he said the customs officials were colluding with dishonest importers in filling forms for the purpose of cheating in the scanning process so that they could import goods without paying tax.
"It`s very dangerous as they (the officials) deny the government rightful revenues…We don`t need these people in office. Once I submit the names to you (Kitilya), please investigate and fire them right away," insisted Kikwete.
He called on TISCAN to get more scanners to increase efficiency because currently they have only one machine that can scan only 200 documents.
He said since one ship has around 1,000 documents and so clearing one ship takes up to five days, adding: "The speed of clearing containers remains a big problem. Seriously, you should get more scanning equipment."
President Kikwete, who rejected a Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) report shortly before it was read to him on the grounds that he was fed up with “unproductive reports“, said the port needed good management, progressive thinking, better planning and a good organisational set-up to deal with the problem of congestion.
He said the Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS) could not be the only source of congestion in the port.
All the stakeholders, including TPA, TRA, clearing and forwarding firms and TISCAN need to play their part.
The President`s visit to the port comes after he met the stakeholders at the end of January and directed TPA to sell all containers staying at the port for more than 21 days in a bid to reduce congestion.
Briefing the President on the current status, the TPA Director General Ephraim Mgawe said the number of ships at the outer anchorage has fallen to 15 ships compared to 23 in January.
The number of containers has also dropped to 8,322 from 10,504 previously, he said, adding that a total of 7,786 had been transferred to inland container depots.
Mgawe explained that a faulty TICTS crane had been repaired and started working since yesterday, while TPA are now assembling four cranes which will start operating this month.
He added that they plan to lease the two cranes to TICTS to increase efficiency and that, since the increase in storage charges, there has been a big rush by traders to clear their goods.
According to the TPA boss, a total of 1,063 cars which had overstayed at the port are now under customs and will be auctioned on March 16.
President Kikwete said increased efficiency could help the port generate more revenue than the tourism sector does.
He promised to visit the port again before the end of next month for a follow-up on the efficiency-enhancement changes he has called for.
The Guardian
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