Tanzania largest container terminal, Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS), has announced that it has handled a record annual throughput of 501,690 TEUS cargo units in 2017.
Transit bound cargo to Tanzania’s neighboring landlocked countries increased by more than 35% in 2017 as compared to 2016, the company indicates.
“The growth has been driven by significant increases in commodity prices such as copper pushing growth for exports and imports, overall economic growth in the landlocked countries resulting in more imports, and the removal of VAT on transit cargo ancillary services by the Government of Tanzania,” the company explains.
However, significant challenges remain since the time taken to pick up transit cargo at Dar Es Salaam port is slow, resulting in decreased terminal storage capacity.
The introduction of VAT on transit goods in 2016 heavily impacted on the cargo volume as Tanzania represents one of the accesses to the Indian Ocean for a number of landlock neighboring countries, namely Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, and Malawi.
Because of this, the government of Tanzania removed VAT on transit goods in the 2016/17 budget.
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