How ETS, Fuel Marking and Data-Driven Tools Transformed Tanzania’s Revenue Assurance Landscape in 2025
Tanzania’s revenue performance in 2025 continues to reflect a clear strategic shift: expanding the tax base while aggressively protecting and optimising existing revenue streams through digital systems.
In the first quarter of the 2025/2026 financial year, the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) collected TZS 8.97 trillion, surpassing its quarterly target by more than 6 percent and recording a 15 percent year-on-year increase compared to the same period in 2024. At the centre of this achievement is the growing role of technology-led solutions such as Electronic Tax Stamps (ETS) and the Fuel Marking Programme, which are redefining how revenue assurance is delivered.
This progress underscores a powerful reality: when tax systems become smarter, the national purse becomes stronger.
Turning Tax Systems into Intelligence Systems
The Electronic Tax Stamps (ETS) system has evolved beyond a compliance requirement to become a real-time intelligence engine. By replacing traditional paper stamps with secure, traceable digital tax stamps, regulators can now track excisable goods seamlessly from the factory floor to retail shelves.
During the 2024/2025 financial year, TRA collected TZS 32.26 trillion, achieving 103 percent of its target and marking a 16.7 percent increase from the previous year. TRA publicly credited technology-enhanced compliance mechanisms—particularly ETS—for strengthening the integrity of excise tax collection.
The impact has been especially notable in excise duty and VAT collections on domestic excisable products, which reached record levels in 2024/2025. Since TRA announced the ETS programme in 2016, excise duty revenues on marked products have increased by 94.4 percent, highlighting the long-term value of digital enforcement.
Safeguarding Fuel Integrity: Protecting Revenue and Transparency
Fuel marking remains a cornerstone of protecting one of Tanzania’s most sensitive revenue streams—the petroleum sector. The system safeguards against fuel adulteration, illicit trade, and tax leakages, all while promoting consumer confidence.
According to EWURA reports, compliance rates now exceed 96 percent, with billions of litres of fuel tested and validated using invisible forensic markers. These markers enable instant verification of fuel authenticity and dilution detection, ensuring that both government revenues and consumers are protected.


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