Culture of friendly taxpayment is the solution
FROM the word go-love and worship of money is the root cause of all evils. This becomes unfortunate in the public service, when a staff forgets his/her responsibility and resorts to create a room, where an extra coin is minted under the cover of serving the public.
Equally, it becomes unfortunate when such an employee or institution forgets humanity to the extent that any little thing to be discussed or educate an ordinary taxpayer to pay tax voluntarily as an obligation, is associated with an element of corruption.
If what took place in Dar es Salaam on Monday that is to say-Kariakoo traders thinking of closing their shops, simply because they failed to iron out minor taxpayment difference with the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), until the Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa had to intervene, then there is a loose nut somewhere and must be tightened.
All along, the previous regimes from the founding Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere to the sixth phase under President Samia Suluhu Hassan have preached that all citizens must pay taxes, but through a friendly and amicable education to them and it has been working.
Without doubt, taxpayer education can be a key tool to boost the willingness of individuals and businesses to voluntarily pay tax, and play a vital role at the heart of mobilising the tax revenues urgently needed to help achieve the government’s goals.
TRA by now should have learnt and created a culture of teaching tax-payment education to the public either through in-depth, often long-term engagement with all types of audiences, whether young people, adults or entrepreneurs, instead of abruptly appearing in premises of businesses and confiscate their wares, because they have not paid taxes.
Communicating tax education, through higher-level awareness-raising engagement with taxpayers. Such initiatives span social media campaigns, tax fairs and TV shows. They also include more scientific approaches drawing on behavioural economics to tailor communications to encourage positive responses.
Tanzania is a peaceful country, where people discuss all sorts of their grievances with their leaders amicably. We should not reach a point, where people (traders) take to the streets to be heard, because such simply sends a wrong message to outsiders, especially foreigners visiting the market for business.
We should reach a point, where there is a supporting tax compliance by providing practical and direct assistance to taxpayers to facilitate collection of taxes in a friendly way. If there are differences, then TRA and the traders’ association should sit down and solve them.
The use of vulgar language and belittling leaders as only expressing political rhetoric should not be in the vocabulary of any public servant tasked to address problem in the public, because they breed hatred. Tanzania is ours, once we belittle it, we belittle ourselves.
