HOW CAN CONSUMER PROTECT HIMSELF OR HERSELF?
Consumer can protect himself or herself before and when buying by doing the following:
i.A consumer can gather enough information about the price of product before doing the actual purchase. This can be by moving around several shops and reading various bulletins which provides such information.
ii.A consumer should claim for necessary documents such as receipts, invoices warranty and so on when doing purchases. These documents will help him or her during the period of complication.
iii.A consumer should obtain the necessary advice from other people about a product which has been advertised in order to protected them cheated by unfaithful leaders.
iv.Also consumer can protect himself or herself via non government and non commercial consumer organization in the market.
OTHER ROLES PLAYED BY THE GOVERNMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE
- Price control advisory committee.
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This is statutory committee set up by the government and representative of business, consumers and public authorities. It is charged with overseeing the price structure, review of prices, application from business concerns for price changes and recommendations to the Minister of finance.
2.Trade policies
These are policies created by the government to control trade. Examples of these policies include the following:
a. Export promotion
Export promotion is done through
i.Incentives given to investors in the export sector of the economy
ii.Export promotion organization (BET) Board of External Trade.
iii.Trade expansion through participation in existing international agreement e.g. Lome Convection
iv.Lowering of export tariffs
b. Protectionism
Protectionism is a part of the trade policy aimed at controlling imports and promoting exports as a safeguard to the economy against the adverse effects of international trade.
Forms of protectionism
Protectionism can be in different forms as explained below:
i.Import tariffs/duties.These are taxes on goods imported .Import tariffs lead to an increase in prices of imports in relation to local produced goods, the increase in price of imports influence local consumers to opt for locally produced goods and thus leads to fall in imports.
ii.Import quota.An import quota is a maximum amount of certain commodities to be imported at certain period of time, quota also disnglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>courage import.
iii.Exchange control.In this measures the central bank provides limited amount of foreign currency to importers to limit them from importing larger quantities of imports.
iv.Embargo/Total ban.This is a policy of prohibiting import of certain commodities which have some negatives cultural or economic impact such as ponography, cocaine and second clothes.
c. Devaluation.The government deliberately reduces the value of its currency against other currencies. This lower the general price of locally produced goods and makes imported goods more expensive. In this way the consumers stops consuming imported goods and buy locally produced goods. This disnglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>courages traders from importing goods from other countries.
d.Revaluation.This is an action of the government of increasing the level of domestic currency. Revaluation aims at making imports cheap.
e. Trade Liberalization (Free trade). Free trade in international trade refer to trade policy where by a country eliminates all trade barriers such as tariff and import quota.
f. Business License.This is permitting document that allow a businessman to carry out a certain business. License are given by the government.
4. Fiscal measures.This are measures that influence economics activities by using taxes and expenditures. The government can control trade by either lowering or increasing tax.
5. Government Investments.The government facilities commerce by investing in the following:
a. Public services.The government provides some services to the public. These are type of services which cannot be provided by the private sector so efficiently e.g. Defence and law enforcement.
b. Capital and securities market.The governments is involved in capital market by issuing stocks and extending loans. It participate in security market by buying security from the public and selling them back to the public.
c. Public corporations.The government establishes public corporations to engage in production of goods and provision of services. E.g. Tanzania Electrical Company (TANESCO) ,Air Tanzania Company Ltd National Insurance (NIC), Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) etc.
d. Provision of credits and subsides.The government sometimes establishes special fund for providing credits to business. It also provide subsides to producers.A subsidy is the government assistance to local producers inform of funds or reduced price of inputs,subsidies enables producers to produce goods at lower cost and thus reduce the price of local goods ennglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>courage consumer to prefer domestic goods than imported goods which become relatively more expensive.
TANZANIA INVESTMENT CENTER (T.I.C)
THE ROLE OF T.I.C
- To promote investment (both local and foreign) in the country, this is done by way presenting our investment opportunities, providing brochures, investors guides, e.t.c.
- To facilitate investors from the initial stage of their investment to the last. This is from identification of land company registration, business licensing, work permit, residence permit, tax issues, etc. as one stop facilitation Centre.
- To give investors after care services by visiting them and see if they have any problem that T.I.C can help so that they can smoothly. continue with business and eventually expand.
- To advice government on investment policy issues.
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GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES WHICH FACILITATE TRADE
The government has two ministries which are directly involved in facilitating commercial activities in the country.
These ministries are
i.Ministry of Trade and industries
ii.Ministry of Finance
1.THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES
In Tanzania, the ministry concerning with business affairs in the Ministry of Commerce and Industries. This ministries is responsible for the promotion and development of home and foreign trade. The ministry regulated the retail and wholesale activities. It also responsible for providing advisory services to traders. It controls all imports from other countries and protects home infant industries from unfair competition from foreign multinational corporations.
ORGANIZATION
Even through organization of this ministry may always change, it is basically divided into the following departments:
i.Administrative department ii.Department of commerce iii.Department of industries.
i.Administration department (section)
This is charged with the responsibility of overall administration and formulating of the ministry’s policies.
ii.Department of commerce
This department is responsible for the promotion of commercial sectors i.e. Trading and commercial services.
This departments is sub divided into:
i.Internal trade section
ii.Commercial trade section
iii.Export trade guarantee section
1. Internal trade section
This section is concerning with the regulation of trading activities within the country. It is responsible for:
i.Ensuring that the weight and measures used by traders and businessmen are of required standards.
ii.Controlling prices of essential commodities such as fuel, sugar, etc.
iii.Ensuring that the essential goods are equally distributed within the country.
iv.Issuing of trading license to the prospective retailers and wholesalers.
v.Provision of training and advisory services to traders and ministry staff.
vi.Supplying business information and statistics to the business firms.
vii.Solving trade disputes.
2. External trade section
This section responsible for promotion and development of Tanzanian products in international market. Most of its activities are performed by the Board of External Trade (B.E.T) which was instituted in 1977 and started operations in the same year.
BOARD OF EXTERNAL TRADE (B.E.T)
It was set up with the main objective of keeping a continuous review of export promotion policies in consultation with the concerned Trading and Industries Ministry. It makes an intensive study of the problems facing export of the country and makes recommendations to the government from the time to time for securing its policy adjustments to stimulate exports.
It gives particular attention to product development, improvement in export marketing techniques, provision of commercial services to exporters, import substitution. Etc.
FUNCTIONS AND OBJECTIVES OF BOARD OF EXTERNAL TRADE
i.Marketing of Tanzanian products in the foreign market.
ii.Advising the manufacturers how to improve the quality of their products in order to get bigger market overseas.
iii.Arranging the trade fairs and exhibition. In foreign countries to introduce Tanzanian products in those countries.
iv.Publishing and providing information on the responsibilities of the expansion of exports.
v.Providing training facilities on exporter matters.
vi.Sending trading delegations study terms for expert study teams of markets abroad.
vii.Encouraging the production and marketing of handcrafts.
- Commercial services section
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This section is responsible for regulation promotion and development of commercial services in Tanzania for the benefit of producers, traders and consumers. Those commercial services include: Insurance and communication warehousing etc.
- Export credit guarantee section
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This section provides insurance for exporters to cover risk of being unpaid where credit has been allowed.
iii. Department of industries
This department is specifically responsible for the promotion and development of industries in Tanzania.
The ministry through this department:
i.Formulates the industrial policy and ennglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>courage the establishment of new industry in both public and private sector including foreign investors.
ii.Induces the industrialists to establish new industry in less developed areas.
iii.Cooperate with the department of commerce to give protection to the domestics industries against the foreign competition.
iv.Provision of financial assistance to the industrialists.
- THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE
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This is the ministry responsible for control of all financial sectors of a country. The ministry of finance applies instruments of fiscal policies i.e. Taxation and government expenditures to regulate business activities.For example when there is low purchasing power due to unemployment, the ministry increasing spending and reduces tax.The ministry of finance also applies instruments of monetary policy such as open market operation (OMO) through the central bank to control money supply in order to regulate the economy. For example when there is inflation The central bank reduces money supply.
