DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Tanzania said Saturday they have spotted 134 illegal ports and 58 unregistered airstrips used for smuggling contraband goods, causing a huge loss to the government in revenue.
Isack Kamwele, Minister for Works, Transport and Communication, revealed the number of illegal ports and airstrips when he was on a familialization tour of the Tanzania Ports Authority (PTA) and Dar es Salaam port.
He said a survey conducted by TPA identified 134 illegal entry ports on lake shores and the shores of the Indian Ocean while 58 airstrips were found to be operating while unregistered in different parts of the country.
The porous entry points which have been identified by the TPA were believed to be operating 24 hours a week, said Kamwele.
"They exist on the shores of the Indian Ocean and on the shores of inland lakes such as Tanganyika and Nyasa which border neighboring countries," said Kamwele.
The minister mentioned some of the contraband shipped in through the illicit entry points as sugar, cooking oil, cement, timber, minerals and many others that contributed to the suffocation of local industries.
He said the government was currently reviewing the law to enable all these porous ports to be placed under one umbrella for easy collection of government revenue.
"We want to monitor them and this will scale up revenue collection and speed up development in the country," he said.
The minister said if the port formalization process was achieved, the country will be able to reach its 75 percent of the missed revenue target.
Tanzania's major legal ports include Dar es Salaam, Mtwara and Tanga.
TPA also oversees some other small ports along the Indian Ocean including Kilwa, Lindi, Pangani and Bagamoyo.
Lake Victoria formal ports include Mwanza, Kemondo, Bukoba, Nansio and Musoma while on Lake Tanganyika are Kigoma, Kasanga and Kibirizi.
