Tax Administrators in Africa must join hands with tax policy markets to address the challenges that impede revenue enhancement to help African Nations increase revenue collection and move away from aid dependence.
Vice-President, Dr Mohamed Gharib Bilal, said this when opening the Third African Tax Administration Forum (AFAF) in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday. He stressed that Africa is a continent capable of self-reliance if its abundant resources are well managed.
"The good news is that Africa is a continent with a bright future and we have to prepare to reap the benefits that arise, he explained, stressing that African countries have already acknowledged the need to rely on internally generated resources as the panacea for sustainable development.
"Africa has demonstrated that it does not need aid as perceived, but is capable of substituting aid with revenue generated through hard work. The continent has registered significant increase in remittance by its 'nationals' overseas," he added.
Dr Bilal added that Tax has been identified as a key source of revenue for sustainable development worldwide. He stressed the need for developing countries to work together to boost domestic resource mobilisation and move away from relying on aid from developed countries.
"It is gratifying to note that African tax administrators have significantly enhanced their revenue collection efficiency over the last ten years, with a number of countries registering revenue to GDP ratio in excess of 20 per cent. This is a commendable effort which can still be improved to match the levels of developed countries," he added.
The Vice-President underscored the urgent need for tax administrators to join hands with tax policy in an effort to address the challenges which include transfer pricing, wasteful tax incentives, unfavourable tax treaties and tax fraud. "I have noted with appreciation the fact that these issues have been given prominence in the agenda of this conference.
I wish to encourage closer collaboration between tax administrators and parent ministries in addressing these concerns," he explained. He added that African nations must stop signing away revenues through tax breaks, transfer pricing and unfair treaties and curb revenue loss through fraud by enhancing staff integrity and automating operations.
On his part, the Deputy Minister for Finance, Mr Mwigulu Nchemba, said the country is working to increase revenue collection and curbing loopholes for tax evaders.
Mr Nchemba said the objective is to maximise on tax collection and match those of developed countries, by putting in place legislatures that will ensure eligible tax payers are taken to task if they evade paying taxes, which will include imprisonment.
He added that the government is planning to establish an authority that will manage and supervise collection of taxes which are currently being collected under special contracts by collector agents.
He said the government has been losing a lot of revenue through such contracts, the bulk of the revenue collected ending up in the hands of the collecting agent.
The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Commissioner General, Mr Rished Bade said Africa is now the talk of the world in every aspect as a continent blessed with abundant untapped resources.
"It is through these resources that our governments are able to attract investments from which we expect to collect revenues amongst other benefits like employment to our people and the like.
" It's for this reason that we are sitting here this week to discuss issues on how best we can help our governments by collecting revenues in the various sectors equitably for the development of our countries and the continent as a whole," he explained.
He said the conference is held at the time of high expectations from the members of the public and from governments for better tax administration and increased operational efficiency.
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