Tanzania exempts imports of LPG smart meters and EV charging stations from VAT

What changed in detail

Section 96 of the Finance Act, 2026 (Act No. 2 of 2026) amends the Schedule to the Value Added Tax Act (CAP. 148). In Part II — the import-exemption list — two new items are added immediately after item 32, with effect from 1 July 2026:

• Item 33 exempts an import of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Smart Meters of HS Code 9028.10.00 by a distributor of liquefied petroleum gas.
• Item 34 exempts an import of an electric vehicle charging station of HS Code 8504.40.00 by a licensed electric vehicle charging service provider.

Both exemptions are conditioned on the importer, not only on the goods. Item 33 requires the importer to be an LPG distributor; item 34 requires a licensed EV charging service provider. An identical unit imported by anyone else remains taxable at the standard rate.

The same section makes unrelated changes elsewhere in the Schedule, including a Part II addition of “paper for printing boarding pass” to item 23 and several Part I amendments covering animal feed, fishing nets, dairy packaging and locally manufactured garments.

What it means

These are narrow, sector-conditional reliefs, and the condition is where the risk sits. Customs classification alone will not get the exemption applied — the entry has to be able to demonstrate the importer’s status as an LPG distributor or a licensed charging service provider, so the licence reference belongs in the import documentation rather than in a file somewhere.

The direction is familiar: Tanzania is using the VAT import schedule as energy-transition policy, in the same pass that widened the marketplace VAT net. If you import either HS code through a group entity that is not itself the licensed operator, the exemption is likely to fail on the importer test even though the goods qualify.