State to reconsider windfall tax on gas - Tanzania

President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania

Source : Daily News Reporter

TANZANIA may reconsider the proposed introduction of a super profit tax on natural gas production after gold miners criticized a similar measure considered by the government three years ago, President Jakaya Kikwete said.

“We have not taken a final decision yet,” Mr Kikwete said in an interview late last week in Dar es Salaam.

“It’s something we are aware of that may create a lot of concerns and jitters and may probably have negative effects. We’ll look into that carefully.”

Tanzania’s government may levy windfall taxes and royalties in addition to corporate and other income taxes, according to a draft natural gas policy published in November.

The state also plans to take an unspecified share in gas production projects, according to the policy.

Tanzanian lawmakers in June 2011 approved a 42.9 trillion shilling ($26.3 billion) economic development plan funded with a super-profit tax on minerals, saying the country needed to derive more benefit from its natural resources.

The government estimates the value of gold exports increased to $1.5 billion in 2010, or 7 per cent of gross domestic product, from $500 million five years earlier. Annual government revenue from sales of the metal remained at $100 million.

The country’s proposal of a super-profit tax on mines sent shares in African Barrick Gold Plc (ABG), the nation’s biggest producer of the metal, to a record low in June 2011.

The government has not introduced the levy. “It has got its own effects we have got to be cognizant of,” Mr Kikwete said. “We cannot just play ostrich and bury the head in the sand.”

Tanzania has an estimated 46 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, discovered by companies including Statoil ASA (STL) and its partner Exxon Mobil Corp., and BG Group Plc (BG/) working with Ophir Energy Plc. (OPHR).

The government expects gas reserves to increase after it offered eight new blocks for exploration in its fourth bidding round, for which the petroleum agency is receiving applications until May 15.

Statoil and BG will build the country’s first liquefied natural gas plant at a location they will announce by the end of May, according to Mr Kikwete. “They are now working on the land rights over the property,” he said.

Mr Kikwete said he expects the gas industry to “definitely” become the leading contributor to the country’s gross domestic product, overtaking gold production.

Tanzania, Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer, has no proven crude reserves and all of the gas the country produces now is consumed locally.

Tanzania needs money to pay for the $1.23 billion Mtwara gas-pipeline project, expansion of the port at Dar es Salaam, building of a $10 billion port at Bagamoyo, and new roads and railways as it targets becoming a middle-income country by 2025.

The government plans to use some of the proceeds from the gas industry to create a sovereign wealth fund, which will partly finance the national budget.

The Tanzanian cabinet will by October send to Parliament a proposed law that will establish the fund and define its structure and uses, Mr Kikwete said. The central bank will probably manage the fund, he said.

“With our gas discoveries and the prospects of getting windfall money, the challenge is how to use that money judiciously,” Mr Kikwete said.