TANZANIA REVENUE AUTHORITY SET TO COLLECT 17 BILLION REVENUE 'DENIED' BY COURT CASES

TRA Director of Education and Taxpayer Services, Mr Richard Kayombo.

After years of denied revenues due to tax cases, the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has said it will collect 16.9 billion/- from the nine cases it had won in October.

Meanwhile, in its monthly revenue collection report, the TRA said it has managed to collect 1.15 trillion/- for the last October, showing that the figure has increased by 20 per cent as compared to the same period last year in which it collected about 800 million/- only.

Speaking over the tax cases, TRA Director of Education and Taxpayer Services, Mr Richard Kayombo, said the cases were filed by companies and individuals in various courts in protesting the taxes charged by the authority.

The positive move came as another source of revenue for the taxman as it tightens its noose on taxpayers to ensure that it meets revenue collection target for the 2016/17 financial year. Mr Kayombo said at a press conference in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday that the authority won nine out of ten cases last month.

Mr Kayombo, however, was not in position to tell about the time which these cases spent before the judgments. “I cannot tell the period during which all this money would have been collected because that would depend on the manner of collecting them,” he said.

The good news came seven months after President John Magufuli said he was not happy with the way the courts were handling over 400 tax evasion cases that were pending.

He said this in February, this year, when he addressed the judiciary during an event to mark the Law Day in Dar es Salaam.

President Magufuli said the cases involved evaded tax to the tune of 1 trillion/-, noting that this was what the country lost.

Daily News