National Institute of Transport (NIT) and the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) are to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to start inspection of imported used motor vehicles.
Without divulging many details on the contents of the [MOU], TBS Acting Director General, Mr. Joseph Masikitiko told our sources that the arrangement will facilitate smooth inspection of vehicles using state-of-the-art equipment and machinery owned by NIT.
National Institute of Transport (NIT) and the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) are to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to start inspection of imported used motor vehicles.
Without divulging many details on the contents of the [MOU], TBS Acting Director General, Mr. Joseph Masikitiko told our sources that the arrangement will facilitate smooth inspection of vehicles using state-of-the-art equipment and machinery owned by NIT.
He said talks held in the past week with NIT concluded that an agreement will be formalized by official signing of the [MOU] ready for the exercise which will mostly involve vehicles from countries where TBS does not have inspection partners.
"We have decided to involve NIT because they have modern inspection equipment and experts. We have also spoken to the Tanzania Ports Authority for the allocation of space and other facilities ready for the exercise scheduled to start in the next two months," he said.
TBS has vehicle inspectors in various countries like Japan and Dubai which are among major points of origin for imported vehicles and plans are afoot to appoint an inspection partners in the UK which also ships a substantial number of vehicles into the country.
Records from TBS and the Tanzania Revenue Authority show that between July and December last year, about 10,000 units of vehicles were imported from Japan, 900 from Dubai and 1,200 from the UK. As the volume of used vehicles being imported is increasing, according to Mr. Masikitiko, there is an urgent need to intensify Destination Inspection (DI) to ensure quality.
According to the acting DG, tendering arrangements are in the final stages to station an inspector in the UK there by late this month if all go well. He, however, cautioned that inspection of used vehicles in Dar es Salaam will not have the desired effect, if the same would be shipped through Zanzibar unchecked.
To address the matter, a team of experts from TBS is soon heading to Zanzibar to hold talks with Zanzibar Bureau of Standards (ZBS) to see how a joint strategy can be put in place to monitor goods entering the Mainland, including vehicles, can be monitored. "We have formed a close partnership with ZBS which is still new on how we can address the issue of substandard goods entering through Zanzibar and the way forward," he said.
For years, Zanzibar has been used as an unofficial route of many substandard goods with recent investigations revealing about 32 routes and the establishment of ZBS aims at curbing the problem. The plan to use NIT to inspect used vehicles comes as the government plans to draw more attention to the Destination Inspection of imported goods along with revisiting the Pre-shipment Verification of Conformity to Standards system.
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