Import Documentation for Tanzania: The Pack Before Goods Arrive

This page is the import documentation operating file: which papers must exist, who issues them, and at which point in the shipment each has to be raised. It is not a duty-rate table and not a sector-licence manual.

• What the entry costs: duty, VAT and excise
• The wider compliance file: clearing goods lawfully
• Conformity before sailing: PVoC and TBS
• The declaration itself: TANCIS entries

As at 14 September 2026. Confirm the live scope lists and tariff schedules with TRA and TBS. This file rests on EACCMA and its 2010 Regulations, the Standards Act Cap. 130 and the VAT Act Cap. 148.

Who owns the entry, and where Zanzibar differs

Customs is a Union matter. The Customs and Excise Department of the Tanzania Revenue Authority administers it on both sides of the Union under EACCMA, and the declaration is keyed into TANCIS by an agent licensed under that Act. An importer does not lodge its own entry; it gives the agent a written mandate against its TIN.

Zanzibar splits at the tax line, not the customs line. TRA assesses import duty and Union taxes at the island port and airport, while Zanzibar VAT and excise are non-Union taxes charged by the Zanzibar Revenue Authority. Conformity on the islands is the Zanzibar Bureau of Standards, and medicines answer to the Zanzibar Food and Drugs Agency. Goods cleared into the islands and later moved across open a second TRA file for the differential.

Who may import, and under which licence class

The importer of record is a person registered in Tanzania holding a TIN and a TANCIS profile. A foreign-owned company incorporated at BRELA imports for its own licensed business. A non-citizen does not import on a personal TIN and pass the goods to a local trader; that arrangement collapses when TRA asks who bore the risk.

Licence class decides the desk. Under the Business Licensing Act Cap. 208 a company with foreign shareholding takes a Class A licence from the ministry responsible for trade, not a Class B licence from the district council. Wholesale and retail trade appear among the activities reserved for citizens under Government Notice No. 487A of 2025, so an investor importing finished goods for resale reads that list before the purchase order. Mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications carry further sector conditions on who may import at all.

The core pack every consignment carries

• Commercial invoice: seller, buyer, Incoterm, currency, unit prices and a description matching the tariff heading. A proforma satisfies the bank, not the customs officer.
• Packing list: marks and numbers, package count, gross and net weight, container and seal numbers.
• Transport document: original bill of lading, sea waybill or telex release by sea; air waybill by air; road consignment note on the corridor.
• Certificate of origin: from the issuing chamber or authority in the exporting country, on the form the preference scheme demands.
• Insurance certificate: needed wherever the sale is FOB or CFR, because customs value is built to CIF under the EACCMA valuation rules.

Behind those sit the importer’s TIN, its VAT registration number, the agent’s mandate and the supplier’s bank details for the outward remittance. The bank applies Bank of Tanzania foreign-exchange and anti-money-laundering standards to that payment, so the invoice it sees and the invoice TRA sees must be one document.

Permits belong to the purchase order, not to the arrival

The Second Schedule to EACCMA carries the prohibited and restricted lists sitting above all of these. A restricted item without its permit is not a delayed consignment; it is an unlawful one, and the officer has seizure powers rather than discretion.

Conformity has to be certified before the vessel sails

Tanzania runs a pre-export verification of conformity programme built on the Standards Act Cap. 130. TBS appoints inspection bodies in the exporting markets, and they certify against a consignment inspection, a registered product or a licensed manufacturing process, depending on the route the supplier qualifies for. The certificate is raised where the goods are, before loading.

Goods inside the programme that reach the port uncertified fall to destination inspection: sampling, testing and a surcharge at the importer’s account, with the box standing while the laboratory works. Ask TBS for the current scope list and surcharge instead of trusting a supplier’s claim of exemption. Food moved to TBS in 2019, so a food consignment presented to TMDA is at the wrong desk.

Origin decides the rate, and the rate is not the whole bill

The EAC Common External Tariff runs four bands: 0% on most raw materials and capital goods, 10% on intermediate goods, 25% on finished goods, and 35% on sensitive products made in the region. Goods satisfying the EAC Rules of Origin travel on an EAC certificate of origin at the internal tariff instead. Goods from a SADC member take the preferential column under the SADC Protocol on Trade. Tanzania withdrew from COMESA in 2000, so a COMESA certificate buys nothing at Dar es Salaam.

Duty is one line on the assessment. Value Added Tax at 18% under the VAT Act Cap. 148 is charged on the customs value plus duty, excise and the other levies. A Railways Development Levy of 1.5% of customs value, introduced by the Finance Act 2015, is collected at entry. Excise applies where the schedule to the Excise (Management and Tariff) Act Cap. 147 reaches the goods, and a customs processing fee is charged at the rate TRA publishes.

Illustrative arithmetic on one consignment

Take finished goods bought at USD 40,000 FOB, with USD 3,500 freight and USD 500 insurance, giving a customs value of USD 44,000. At an assumed rate of TZS 2,600 to the dollar that is TZS 114,400,000. Illustrative arithmetic, not a quotation; TRA applies its own published customs exchange rate on the day of assessment.

• Import duty at the 25% band: TZS 28,600,000
• Railways Development Levy at 1.5%: TZS 1,716,000
• VAT base of TZS 144,716,000, taxed at 18%: TZS 26,048,880
• Payable to TRA at entry: TZS 56,364,880

Move the same container to the 10% band and duty falls to TZS 11,440,000 and VAT to TZS 22,960,080, for a total of TZS 36,116,080. The tariff heading is therefore worth TZS 20,248,800 on one shipment, which is why classification is an importer decision taken before the order, not a forwarder’s guess taken at the gate.

The sequence the desks take

1. Classify the goods and screen the schedules. Fix the tariff heading and check the prohibited and restricted lists before any deposit is paid.
2. Take out the sector permit. Registration first where the regulator requires it, then the consignment permit, both before loading.
3. Book the conformity inspection. The supplier presents the goods in the exporting market and the certificate issues before departure.
4. Fix the supplier’s paperwork. Invoice, packing list and origin certificate consistent with each other, and the transport document consigned to the company holding the TIN.
5. Appoint the licensed agent. Hand over the mandate and the full pack, and check that the carrier has lodged the cargo manifest.
6. Lodge the declaration before arrival. A pre-arrival entry in TANCIS is matched against that manifest and assessed.
7. Pay on the control number and take release. Settle the assessment through the government payment gateway, then collect the carrier’s delivery order.
8. File the pack. The assessment and receipt support the input-tax claim on the VAT return and the landed-cost entry in the accounts.

EACCMA gives the owner 21 days from the commencement of discharge to enter the goods. Cargo not entered in time moves to a customs warehouse, where rent accrues and the goods become liable to sale by public auction. That clock runs on discharge, not on when a supplier finally emails a missing document.

Where this file stalls

• The bill of lading is consigned to a director personally while the entry is in the company’s name; the carrier will not release to the declarant.
• The tariff heading came from the freight forwarder, and the permit the correct heading needs was never applied for.
• The invoice shows no Incoterm, freight is undeclared, and the officer uplifts the value.
• The bank remitted against a proforma the final invoice no longer matches, and the payment goes to query.
• One container mixes food and cosmetics, so two regulators hold the whole load while a single permit is chased.
• Customs released the goods, but there is no original bill of lading and no telex release, so nothing leaves the yard.
• Carrier free days and terminal free storage are treated as one clock; they are two, and both run.

What has changed

The fourth tariff band arrived with the 2022 review, so goods that once topped out at 25% now sit at 35% where the region produces them. Food regulation moved to TBS in 2019 and the medicines regulator was reconstituted as TMDA, redirecting every food import permit. The Plant Health Act, 2020 replaced the old plant protection regime and created TPHPA as the phytosanitary desk. Electronic tax stamps now apply to imported excisable goods, adding a step between release and lawful sale for spirits, beer, soft drinks and tobacco.

Mandate-holders this file does not replace

TRA owns the entry, the assessment and the release. TBS owns conformity and food standards; TMDA owns medicines, devices and cosmetics; TPHPA, GCLA, TCRA and the livestock ministry own their permits. The port authority owns the yard and its storage tariff, the carrier owns the delivery order, and the licensed agent signs the declaration and carries the liability. The commercial bank owns the outward payment under Bank of Tanzania rules.

Zatra prepares the pack, sequences the permits and coordinates the desks. It does not practise law, audit, issue permits or clear goods, and gives no assurance of any regulatory outcome.

What to confirm before you act

• The tariff heading, checked against the live external tariff, and the band that follows from it.
• Whether the goods sit inside the conformity programme, and the surcharge for arriving without a certificate.
• Which regulator registers the product, and whether registration must precede the consignment permit.
• That the consignee named on the transport document is the TIN holder making the declaration.
• Free time under the carrier’s tariff and free storage at the terminal, in days.
• Whether the entry point is Mainland or island, and which authority takes the consumption tax.