Tanzania affirms its commitment to improve investment, business environment

KATAVI: THE Deputy Minister of Finance, Laurent Luswetula, has assured the business community and entrepreneurs in the country that the government will continue to provide them with a good investment and business environment to grow their businesses.

Luswetula made the statement while speaking to the business community in Mpanda town in Katavi region, where he stressed that the move is aimed at increasing productivity in business and government revenue in general through tax collection.

He said that the government has done a great job of stimulating business and ordering non-coercive tax payment, a move that has caused tax revenue to increase significantly.

“We have heard the Commissioner of the Tanzania Revenue Authority, Yusuph Mwenda, announcing to the public about the successes they have achieved in tax collection, where in December alone.

TRA has collected more than 4.13tri/-, a record that has never happened since the country gained independence,” he said.

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Furthermore, he urged businessmen to continue to support the government’s efforts to bring development to the people by paying taxes voluntarily, as the funds are used to implement various economic and social projects, including roads, education, health, water, energy, railway infrastructure, and other projects.

Speaking on behalf of the traders of the Katavi region, the Chairman of the Association, Amani Mahela, thanked the government for creating a favorable environment for doing business and paying taxes, and advised that further steps should be taken to enable them to carry out their activities effectively, including the waiver of tax claims for the past five years.

He said that the voluntary payment of taxes is due to stakeholders seeing the fruits of the relevant taxes being used in the construction of strategic projects to improve social and economic services, and stressed that to further achieve the results of tax payment, the Government needs to increase the number or scope of taxpayers to at least match the current population of 62 million people.