THE Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has made a significant improvement to its information systems with the aim of improving its quality in terms of availability and processing speed.
TRA Commissioner General, Mr Alphayo Kidata, in a public notice published on Tuesday, said that the improvements included upgrading software, hardware and system infrastructure.
According to TRA, its current information system is facing a challenge, mainly being a result of the existing technology being inadequate to serve the growing needs of taxpayers.
“For a considerable period of time TRA’s information systems supporting tax administration services have been adversely impacted particularly during due dates of filling returns and payment of taxes,” Mr Kidata said.
He noted that resolving the challenge has been one of the highest priorities for TRA.
“We have been working tirelessly focusing on improving the quality of the systems in terms of, among others, availability and processing speed,” he said.
Mr Kidata expounded that the initiative involved significant investment in terms of key infrastructure and development of software.
According to him, among the key changes is the implementation of High Availability Data Centre (HADC) initiative to ensure that the systems remain operational seamlessly at all time.
He said that the upgrading system involves the Taxpayers ‘Portal (a gateway for all TRA electronic services), electronic filing of returns -Filing), withholding Tax Management System and EFD Error Management.
Others are Taxpayer Registration System for Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and VAT Registration Number (VRN) System and Payments Registration System (RGS) are also among the upgraded systems.
The commissioner said that the initiatives to improve the system is guided by an inspiring vision of becoming “A Trusted Revenue Administration for Socio-Economic Development” aimed at improving the organizations’ ability to raise more revenue for economic development by forming coalitions with stakeholders.
Mr Kidata assured that TRA shall continue with periodic releases of upgraded tax administration information systems, as the current upgrade system shall be rolled out in February 2023.
“To start with, the current upgraded systems shall be rolled out for use by all taxpayers effective from the second week of February 2023,” he explained.
On other hand he said, TRA recognizes taxpayers and the general public as crucial stakeholders in everything they do.
“It is the taxpayers’ feedback and suggestions that provides TRA with inputs for continual improvement,” Mr Kidata said.
He invited taxpayers and the general public to provide timely and constructive feedback, ideas and suggestions to make more improvements of the systems.