TANZANIA REVENUE AUTHORITY HITS A RECORD 13.371/- TRILLION TAX COLLECTION

TRA Commissioner General, Alphayo Kidata.

The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has registered a milestone record in tax collection for the 2015/16 financial year, collecting 13.371 trillion/-; hence surpassing the 13.366 trillion/- target.

The achievement is a huge boost to TRA, which failed to meet its revenue collection targets for the past five years or so. For instance, during the 2012/13 financial year, TRA was required to collect 8.05tri/- but the target was missed by about three per cent.

Similarly, the authority missed its target of Sh10.395tri/- by a massive 10 per cent for the entire 2013/14 financial year.

The tax authority noted that the situation brings hope to the Fifth Phase Government, which focuses on improving the lives of its citizens through financing development projects as well as the recently-introduced free education system.

TRA Commissioner General Alphayo Kidata said that for June alone, the authority managed to exceed its monthly target by over 7 per cent, noting that as while the goal set was to collect Sh1.311tri/-, they garnered 1.414tri/-.

“I thank the staff of the authority for the effort they have made since the Fifth Phase Government came to power in collecting tax as they work towards in implementing the authority’s strategy to increase revenue, “ Mr Kidata told a press conference in Dar es Salaam.

He further attributed the success to the ongoing crackdown on tax leakages, which the deceitful businessmen and public officials used to evade tax, leading to the government losing billions of shillings.

The move to plug tax loopholes has also seen the revenues from customs at the Dar es Salaam port going up despite significant drop of cargo volume since end of the last year. Mr Kidata said they were usually collecting between 200bn/- and 300bn/-annually from the port.

However, for last April and June, the authority pocketed 458bn/- and 517bn/- respectively. “Though the cargo volume has declined, the revenue has increased due to the fact that now we have plugged loopholes used to evade tax,” he explained.

On illegal/informal ports, TRA Principal Researcher Mr Beldon Chaula said dishonest traders were using such ports to import the cargo as a means of evading tax. “We will ensure that only formal routes are used to bring the goods into the country,” he stressed.

However, Mr Chaula noted that during the recent patrol on illegal ports, they established that for the past one month, the rate of traders using such ports has declined.

“I wouldn’t want to believe that this situation might be a result of the Holy Month of Ramadhan, that people fear God at least for this month,” he jokingly said.

The Commissioner for Domestic Revenues, Mr Elijah Mwandumbya, said during the current 2016/17 fiscal year, they have prepared a number of measures that would further improve efficiency in tax collection.

He said his department, will among others engage in an exercise to assess the Taxpayer Identity Numbers (TIN) for those who possess more than one number. “We found out that some of them have identity numbers that they don’t use; so it is better that they remain with only one that is active,” he said.

Daily News