Forget the new buses in Tanzania that everyone is talking about,the Opposition wing yesterday blamed the shortage of sugar rocking the country on an import ban President John Magufuli imposed on the commodity whose prices continue shooting up in the market.
The shadow minister for Industry and Trade, Mr Anthony Komu, told reporters yesterday that the ban, coupled with recent arrests of businessmen suspected of hoarding sugar was invalid in a free-market economy and that the move might end up frustrating the local business environment.
As the Opposition criticised the government, the Police Force in collaboration with the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) seized a consignment of 648.9 tonnes of the commodity. While 622.4 tonnes were found hoarded in Morogoro, 26.5 other tonnes were impounded in Mwanza.
A survey by The Citizen (Tanzania) established that prices of the commodity have not decreased, as it retailed at between Sh2,600 and Sh4,000 a kilogramme in various pockets of the country.
