Tarime district council benefits from royalty

In order to ensure that the royalty is paid by mining companies which operates nearest to the local community, the government has been very strict to see this is effected as it is in the overall work schedules. Tarime district is among the districts in the country which benefits from these money paid by mining investment companies as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. In view of this on Friday last week, The Nortrh Mara Gold Mine has handed over its latest service levy amounting to 1,253,396,585.34 (nearly 1.3 billion shillings) to Tarime District Council. North Mara Gold Mine Acting General Manager, Mr Richard Ojendo, handed the service levy payment to the Tarime District officials during a brief event officiated by Tarime District Commissioner (DC), Mr Glorious Luoga on Friday morning. Mr Jendo said the service levy which represents 0.3 per cent of the gold mine’s turn over covers July-December, last year. “We are happy to be given this opportunity to hand over this service levy today. Our focus is now on improving relationship, communication and building trust,” Mr Ojendo who is also the mine’s Sustainable Communities Manager said in part of his brief handing over remarks. The Acting GM said that the gold mine plans to establish a business training centre aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in the surrounding villages this year. In addition to that, he said the mine would also set up a demonstration farm that would be used to sensitize local people to embark on sustainable best farming practices in an effort to boost their income. The Tarime DC welcomed the service levy paid by the miner, saying that it will play a great role in improving social services especially in areas of water supply and health service delivery. He used the opportunity to direct relevant officials in Tarime to close businesses of all traders operating in the area without paying service levy, emphasizing that payment of service levy and other taxes is imperative for the national development. North Mara Gold Mine is the largest service levy payer in Tarime District Council. Consequently, billion of shillings being disbursed by the mine as service levy from time to time is making impact on the lives of people in the area through improvement of social services. The gold mine is operated by Acacia mining. Besides the service levy, the mining company has also been investing heavily on local development as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), with provision of social services getting top priority.