Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) has ordered reshipment of more than 16,000 litres of engine oil lubricants back to the country of origin for failure to meet the quality standards.
TBS Director General, Joseph Masikitiko told reporters in Dar es Salaam on Friday that the consignment imported to the country by Hass Petroleum (T ) from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was utterly unfit for the local market consumption.
It is the second time in a week of a countrywide crackdown on imported sub-standard oil and the related products launched by TBS that the consignment from the same country is rebounded back from the Dar es Salaam Port.
Last week TBS stopped off-loading over 37,500 metric tonnes of substandard petroleum products from aboard MT Ridgebury John B vessel docked at the port from Nigeria for failure to meet quality standard requirements.
However, the quality controllers ordered the return of the oil lubricants to UAE at the expense of the importing company, namely Hass Petroleum as per directives reached on December 31, Masikitioko said.
“Importers of oil lubricants and other goods should make sure that all imported products meet the required standard before entering the local market,” he said, adding that it was high time stakeholders came with clear strategy to stop the flow of poor quality commodities into the country.
Stakeholders are worried that fake lubricants are overpowering the genuine market in Tanzania, calling for concerted efforts to stop the ill before it grounds automobiles whose engines are bound to die from exhaustive use of the fake oil, before the environment is entirely polluted and state coffers become dry of foreign currency.
He said the government would continue with certifying lubricants using available certification schemes and would make follow ups to verify overseas certification of lubricants prior to their departure for Tanzania.
“We are ready even to incur costs in this exercise which would ensure that there are no substandard oils imported or sold in Tanzania,” the General Manager of General Petroleum Tanzania Limited, Irfan Khan said this week while suggesting close cooperation between the government and local dealers to apprehend the culprits.
A survey carried out by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and ACEA Sequences and Equivalence about two years ago in Kilimanjaro and Arusha Regions revealed that more than 90 per cent of imported oils to Tanzania were substandard.
TBS Director General, Joseph Masikitiko told reporters in Dar es Salaam on Friday that the consignment imported to the country by Hass Petroleum (T ) from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was utterly unfit for the local market consumption.
It is the second time in a week of a countrywide crackdown on imported sub-standard oil and the related products launched by TBS that the consignment from the same country is rebounded back from the Dar es Salaam Port.
Last week TBS stopped off-loading over 37,500 metric tonnes of substandard petroleum products from aboard MT Ridgebury John B vessel docked at the port from Nigeria for failure to meet quality standard requirements.
However, the quality controllers ordered the return of the oil lubricants to UAE at the expense of the importing company, namely Hass Petroleum as per directives reached on December 31, Masikitioko said.
“Importers of oil lubricants and other goods should make sure that all imported products meet the required standard before entering the local market,” he said, adding that it was high time stakeholders came with clear strategy to stop the flow of poor quality commodities into the country.
Stakeholders are worried that fake lubricants are overpowering the genuine market in Tanzania, calling for concerted efforts to stop the ill before it grounds automobiles whose engines are bound to die from exhaustive use of the fake oil, before the environment is entirely polluted and state coffers become dry of foreign currency.
He said the government would continue with certifying lubricants using available certification schemes and would make follow ups to verify overseas certification of lubricants prior to their departure for Tanzania.
“We are ready even to incur costs in this exercise which would ensure that there are no substandard oils imported or sold in Tanzania,” the General Manager of General Petroleum Tanzania Limited, Irfan Khan said this week while suggesting close cooperation between the government and local dealers to apprehend the culprits.
A survey carried out by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and ACEA Sequences and Equivalence about two years ago in Kilimanjaro and Arusha Regions revealed that more than 90 per cent of imported oils to Tanzania were substandard.
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