Tax returns from the mining sector have risen by 78% for the past three months.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Professor Justin Ntalikwa said that, in a short period they have done well in revenue collection, though not very hard to add substantially to achieve the objectives expected by the end of the financial year 2015/2016.
The remark was made last week during a meeting with the officers who are in the headquarters of the ministry in Dar es Salaam that focused on familiarization and discuss various issues including how to better perform the duties of the ministry and take note to the challenges faced by workers during their performance.
He said that in order for a country to be an industrial one and finally enter into the medium economy nation, electricity supply has to be reliable and cheap so as to attract investors in the sector.
Professor Ntalikwa used the opportunity to talk about successes in the energy sector and explained that within that period, the government has succeeded in the launch of gas to electricity project namely Kinyerezi II in Dar es Salaam.
Its completion will enable the production of power estimated at 240MW whereby 180MW will come from natural gas while 60MW comes from steam which will obtained during the acceleration from machines to produce electricity.
President Magufuli has expressed satisfaction with the performance of the Ministry and asked its officials to increase efforts and speed up implementation of the projects and seek for other power projects so that it can be a springboard heading into industrial country.
“The Ministry has the opportunity to develop projects and programs that will attract investors, however, this achievement within the past three months is a good signal,” Dr. Magufuli said.
In his comments, the Deputy Permanent Secretary in charge of Energy Engineer Juliana Pallangyo said that the progress made in the past three months is a good symbol and so the ministry is urging workers to maintain unity, solidarity and hard work to enable the nation to move further as a consequence of the energy and mining sectors contribution.
source: AllAfrica