The Bank of Tanzania headquarters in Dar es Salaam. (File photo)

The country’s survey of foreign private investments is set to be conducted later this month and is expected to cover about 300 firms with foreign assets as well as liabilities in the Tanzania Mainland.

According to a tripartite statement issued by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the survey will last for a month and information collected will be on status of equity and loans and transaction summaries made in the financial year 2010/2011.

The statement said provision of requested information is compulsory under Section 6 (b) of the TIC Act of 1997, Section 47 of the Statistics Act of 2002 and Section 57 of the BoT Act of 2006, and compliance is mandatory as required by the Acts.

Therefore, chief executives, directors of finance, and chief accountants of the sampled companies are required to extend co-operation to the researchers by responding to questions and providing all related statistics as requested, it said,

It added that they are supposed to observe the set deadline set, in which time questionnaires issued are to be submitted.

The data is vital to bring up to date national figures with the Balance of Payments (BoP) enabling economists to determine the country’s International Investment Position (IIP).

Furthermore, data will be also used to review and formulate macroeconomic policies and set basis to the designing of investment promotion and facilitation strategies to be thus used strictly for statistical purposes, and will be published in aggregate form.

Sampled companies have been requested to complete the survey questionnaires carefully accurately and in a timely manner. Where audited financial statements won’t be ready, their unaudited or ‘provisional financial figures’ will be acceptable, it said.

The data is only necessary for the assessment of foreign private investments impact on the Tanzanian economy and not company legal compliance, it said.

Companies have been assured that no data relating to individual enterprises shall in any way or form be disclosed to any entity outside BoT, TIC or NBS, the statement said.

It further assures the companies with a confidentiality clause subject to disciplinary action including, entire summary dismissal.

During the survey, a team of researchers from BoT, TIC and NBS will conduct face-to-face interviews with the chief executives, directors of finance and chief accountants of the sampled firms.

The surveys which were originally initiated at the turn of the millennium in 2000, are conducted on an annual basis.

However, efforts are also underway to capture and disseminate the information on a higher frequency basis such as quarterly and semi annual as required by the International Monetary Fund General Data Dissemination Standard (IMF-GDDS) and other stakeholders.