THE Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) withdrew a total of 105 tax related cases from the tax tribunal in the financial year 2021/2022.
This was revealed by the TRA Director of Finance, Ms Lina Edward, during the occasion to award the Kilimanjaro Region’s Best Tax Payers for the year 2021/2022, which was held in Moshi, Kilimanjaro region, over the weekend.
“This move was meant to respond to President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s call to have good relations with taxpayers in the country and create harmony between the two parties, while executing our (TRA) duties,” she said.
“The efforts we made to respond and implement the president’s order have led the authorities to drop a total of 105 tax cases that were in court related to tax issues in the fiscal year 2021/2022. The authority will continue with efforts meant to resolve the misunderstandings with the taxpayers, as part of its initiatives to encourage and create good relations with the taxpayers and thus increase collections for the development of the country,” she said.
Ms Lina, who represented the TRA Commissioner General Alphayo Kidata at the event, said that the good relations between TRA and taxpayers have begun to bear fruits, including increasing the government’s revenues collections to a large extent.
“The collections for the financial year 2021/2022 reached 22.28tri/-, which is equal to 99.22 per cent of the set goal of collecting 22.45tri/-; this is a great achievement compared to the collections of 15.15tri/- achieved in the previous financial year,” she said.
On his side, TRA Director for Tax Payer Services and Education Richard Kayombo said the initiative to adopt polite approaches in tax collection is greatly paying off.
“We have decided to withdraw the cases so that they are sorted out of court. We have come up with a set of contractual procedures and agreements that requires the business people to continue with their activities as they offset what they owed to TRA.
Speaking about the awards to best taxpayers, Mr Kayombo said after hosting the event at the national level, they have now fixed their attention at rewarding best taxpayers at regional and district levels.
He said winners are picked based on four criteria, which include proper keeping of tax records, timely payment of tax, the amount of tax paid as well as cooperating with the TRA officials whenever required to do so. The objective, he said was to enhance compliance in paying taxes.
In April last year, President Samia directed TRA to urgently resolve tax wrangles with business persons and investors, insisting oppressive tax regimes are uncalled for.
President Samia ordered the authority’s Commissioner General Alphayo Kidata to ensure fairness in discharging tax laws.
Speaking shortly after administering the oath of integrity to Permanent Secretaries and their Deputies as well as various heads of government institutions the president said: “tax collection must be conducted effectively and will not allow oppressive tax systems that are forcing businesses to be shut down.”
The systems have been so harsh that most foreign investors are opting to close their domestic operations.
President Samia demanded TRA to adopt polite approaches that can help collect revenue without creating chaos with the investors.
“Go and collect tax, we need taxes but we don’t want oppressive approaches,” she said suggesting the authority to set a special taskforce that will help craft better ways of collecting taxes.
The Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Nurdin Babu commended the management of the TRA for responding to the call of President Samia, who asked the leadership to create harmony with taxpayers.
He said the decision has contributed to the increase in tax collections in the region and in the country in general.
“The good relations that you have built with taxpayers have led many businessmen to pay their respective taxes without being forced to do so, which is a good thing for the development of the country,” he said.
In addition, he congratulated the leadership of the authority within Kilimanjaro Region for exceeding the collection target.
He, however, cautioned the TRA officials in the region not to be carried away by the success and instead, ensure that they continue improving their performance and collect more revenue.
Earlier, the TRA Manager in the Kilimanjaro Region, Mr Masawa Masatu, said they collected a total of 227.7bn/- in the financial year 2021/2022, surpassing the target which was set of collecting 210.52bn/-.
