Q&A – 3 August 2015
Motorcade obstruction
There was a motorcade passing and I was stopped by the police. I immediately, and so as not to obstruct the motorcade, parked my car on the extreme right hand side of the road. The motorcade took 5 minutes to passby and after that I was put under arrest on grounds that I should have parked my car on the left hand side of the road and not the right hand side. From my knowledge, I am supposed to stop, which I did, and park my car so as not to obstruct the motorcade. I wasn’t aware of what side of the road to park on. Does the law say anything on this?
YU, Dar
The Road Traffic Act is very strict when it comes to obstruction of a motorcade. Section 43 states that (1) Any person who drives any motor vehicle or trailer in such a way as to obstruct, hinder or impede the progress of an official motorcade, or who disobeys the instruction, conveyed orally, by signals or otherwise, of any police officer or other public officer in any vehicle escorting or forming part of the official motorcade, or of any police officer or other public officer on any road or other public place along which an official motorcade is passing or is about to pass, shall be guilty of an offence.
Subsection (3) states that every driver of a motor vehicle shall upon approach or during the passing of an official motorcade on the road– (a) where the road is demarcated into one traffic lane for the direction of travel, draw the vehicle to a halt at the extreme left of the road.
Unfortunately for you, the police officer was right that you were supposed to park the car on the extreme left hand side of the road and not the right hand side.
Much as you do not want to hear this, you did commit a traffic offence.
VAT Act impact on PSAs, MDAs
Our company has invested billions of dollars in Tanzania and with the new VAT Act, a number of the provisions in our PSA are affected making us worse off. There are new provisions that were not in existence at the time of signing of the PSA.
What can we do to address this situation?
GL, Dar
It is well known that both oil and gas and mining exploration projects are high risk projects and prone to more failure then success.
It is with that in mind that the Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) for oil and gas companies, and Mining Development Agreements (MDAs) for mining companies have fiscal stability clauses that clearly recognize this.
We have read the new VAT Act and particularly section 95 comes to the rescue of the oil and gas and mining companies as it grandfathers the PSAs and MDAS that the Government has already entered into. Without capturing the relief granted to companies under PSAs and MDAs, which agreements are covered under their respective legislation and binding on the government from a contractual point of view, would have led to massive litigation.
This was taken into account by parliament when enacting the new VAT Act and we do not see where you are offended as a company.
Section 95(1)(b) of the VAT Act clearly states that “where the Government of the United Republic has concluded a binding agreement relating to exploration and prospecting of minerals, gas or oil with a person before the commencement of this Act, the provisions of the repealed Act relating to value added tax relief shall continue to apply to the extent provided for in the agreement.”
Therefore whatever benefits you were getting under the old act that were provided for in the respective agreement will continue to be enjoyed by you.
The challenging part, perhaps, is if something in the agreement was not provided for under the old VAT Act, then it is likely not provided for under this new Act.
If that is the case, we recommend you take this up with the Ministry of Finance.
If all intervention fails, and you are worse off than you would have been had the law not changed, then you can proceed to invoke the dispute resolution clause under the PSA, provided there is a fiscal stability clause in your PSA.
Founding a country
I have passion to become a ruler
of a country and intend to buy a massive piece of land, and invite people to apply for citizenship. Is this something that I can do here?
NB, Songea
Sadly your dream of becoming a ruler will not come true in Tanzania.
There is no such land for sale and if you even attempt to declare that any such land is under your command and not governed under Tanzanian law, your land title will very likely be revoked.
You may also be charged with treason, a non bailable offence, which might fetch you a life imprisonment.
AG, MP attendance in parliament
I am a law student and confused whether the Attorney General (AG) is a member of parliament? I see him sitting in parliament all the time and not attending to his official duties. I also see that MPs don’t show up in parliament- can they not be removed from office for non-attendance?
TR, Dar
The AG is the chief advisor to the Government on legal affairs.
Article 59(5) of our Constitution states that (5) The Attorney-General shall be a Member of Parliament by virtue of office, and shall hold office until – (a) his appointment is revoked by the President; or (b) immediately before the President elect assumes office, and he shall be paid a salary, allowances and other remuneration in accordance with a law enacted by Parliament.
Therefore the AG is a member of parliament and is supposed to attend parliamentary sessions. When in parliament he is indeed attending to his duties. Without sounding sarcastic, we hope you are attending a reputable law school as the constitution is the first law you should have studied.
On attendance, the constitution provides that where a Member of Parliament fails to attend three consecutive meetings of the National Assembly without the permission of the Speaker, he or she shall cease to be Member of Parliament and shall vacate their seat in the National Assembly.
We are unsure as to how strictly this is being enforced.