THE Insider Trading Act, which provides for both civil and criminal prosecutions for insider trading offences on the financial markets, kicked in at the weekend. The Act assigns control over insider trading to the Financial Services Board which will be required to publish rules governing disclosure to the authorities as well as how to deal with insider information. Investors who lose assets as a result of insider trading will be able to claim compensation dictated by the amount which the guilty party is fined.
TANZANIA TO PROBE TAX EVASION
TANZANIA’S ministry of energy and minerals is probing ten oil companies it suspects of involvement in a massive smuggling racket which has cost the government billions of shillings in missed taxes. The local Daily Mail reports that the probe is part of a major crackdown to stop an oil companies evading paying taxes by smuggling petroleum products in different forms, either by bribing customs officers or diverting transit cargo to local use. Major petroleum-product companies are said to be losing up to 30% of the domestic fuel market to racketeers who have been selling the products below the fixed rates.