At a public hearing today, HakiRasilimali submitted to the parliamentary committees on Energy and Minerals and Constitutional and Legal Affairs its opinion on the following bills tabled in parliament on the 29th of June 2017:
1. The Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendment) No. 4 Of 2017
2. Natural Wealth and Resource Contracts (Review and Renegotiations of Unconscionable Terms) Act 2017
3. The Natural Wealth and Resources (Permanent Sovereignty) Act 2017

Recently, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr. John Pombe Magufuli  constituted two high level committees of experts tasked with investigating potential under declaration of mineral content in the exportation of unprocessed mineral concentrates and ores largely from Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines both owned by Acacia Mining Plc and to provide recommendations on how to handle the subsector. Further, the committees were tasked to examine the fiscal aspects of the mining regime. The findings presented thereafter led to a meeting with the Barrick Executive Chairman Prof.

The government should conduct a baseline assessment to determine the targets that the country plans to achieve from the oil and gas sector and set expectations around realistic local content levels.  The argument stemmed from the Policy Forum’s breakfast Debate entitled: “Thinking local: What are the Lessons & Challenges of enhancing Local Content in Tanzania?” that took place on April 28, 2017 in Dar es Salaam.

The government has pledged to consider recommendations suggested by the study entitled, Where is the Money?  Taxation and the state of Africa Mining Vision  (AMV) implementation: A case study of Tanzania and East Africa. The Commissioner of Minerals Eng. Ally Samaje made the promise during the National Launch of Africa Mining Vision Study on Tanzania organized by Policy Forum in collaboration with Tax Justice Network- Africa, Tanzania Tax Justice Coalition and HakiRasilimali on May 15, 2017, Dodoma.

Stakeholders have commended the government for enacting the The Tanzania Extractive Industries (Transparency and Accountability) Act of 2015 and have called upon it to address some of the challenges such as the law properly addressing the issue of transfer pricing in the extractive sector and mentioning the kinds of sanctions to be given to companies involved in transfer pricing abuses.

We, representatives of over 450 members of faith-based organisations, civil society organisations, community based organisations, Pan African networks and organisations, labour movements, women movements, human rights activists, media, students from African countries and our international partners met on February 6–8, 2017 in Cape Town to share experience, lessons and deliberate on the role and the impacts of extractives on communities, national economies, the environment and society at large.

Tax avoidance is one of the biggest economic issues of our time. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF), developing countries currently lose $ 100- $ 300 billion of tax revenue through tax avoidance. One among many reasons for such a problem is inefficient taxation of extractive activities and the inability to fight abuses of transfer pricing by multinational enterprises. This was said in Dar es Salaam in the last breakfast debate of Policy Forum (PF) slated for November 25, 2016.

On October 26 and 27, 2016, HakiRasilimali Coalition in collaboration with its members: HakiMadini, Interfaith Standing Committee, Policy Forum, ONGEA and Governance Humbly Links will organize a national conference on extractive Industry to be held at Blue Pearl Ubungo Plaza Hotel, Dar es Salaam. A two day conference will commence at 8:00am.

The conference aims to broadening information sharing to build awareness and provide lessons on advocacy strategies in mining, oil and gas economies.

There are concerns that Tanzania’s lucrative extractive industry is not generating adequate revenues and not contributing significantly to the reduction of poverty and that the country could slide into another “resource curse” a phenomenon so common in many African resource-rich countries. This was said by Dr. Martin Kijazi, a consultant at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) at the Policy Forum Breakfast Debate held on the 24th of June 2016.

Tanzanian civil society organisations on Friday 27th May, 2016 elected five representatives to the 3rd Tanzania Extractive Industries Transparency and Accountability Committee (TEITA Committee) formally known as Multi Stakeholder Group (MSG) which will be operational until May 2018.

The TEITA Committee brings together government, companies and civil society representatives that oversee the production of reports which allow citizens to follow the value of Tanzania’s natural resources from extraction all the way into government financial accounts for discussion and public debate.