Why majority support tax systems, survey.

NINE out of ten people in Tanzania agree with the basic idea that paying taxes is important for the country to attain socio-economic development, according to new findings contained in a study conducted by a research firm, Twaweza.

The new report dubbed; “State of the Nation – Economics: Tanzanian citizens’ experiences and opinions on the national economy and mobile money transaction taxes,” shows that 67 per cent of people agree that mobile money transactions levy is an important way for the government to generate revenue.

In addition, six in ten people representing 63 per cent of Tanzanians pointed to the fact that mobile phone levy ensures that everyone contributes to national development.

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However, 46 per cent of the people who were interviewed agree that the levy will reduce dependence on donors with the citizens showing signs that they would be more supportive of the levy if they had better information on how the revenue is spent.

Findings of the report shows further that the people who were interviewed during the study were largely positive about changes in public services, governance and security over the past six months.

On the other hand, according to the findings of the study, people’s awareness of the mobile money transactions levy overall is high, but recent reductions are less well known.

The government enacted a new levy on mobile money transactions in July, last year but after public discussion it reduced the levy by 30 per cent in September, last year.

“Citizens are more likely to say the country is heading in the right direction than in the wrong direction,” reads part of the findings.

Speaking during the launching of the report in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the Executive Director of Twaweza, Mr Aidan Eyakuze, said the people’s views about levies on mobile money transactions demonstrate the complexity of governing.

“The government needs to widen the tax base so as to raise revenue to fund public services. A wider tax base includes more citizens in the social contract and encourages them to demand accountability,” Mr Eyakuze remarked.

The citizens interviewed mentioned a wide range of projects on which they would like the new mobile money levy revenue to be spent.

A majority of the respondents, representing 57 per cent mentioned the health sector while 50 per cent preferred education followed by road construction at 38 per cent, water services at 33 per cent.

Twaweza released the findings in a research brief based on data from ‘Sauti za Wananchi’, Africa’s first nationally representative high-frequency mobile phone survey.

The data presented was collected from a specially constituted panel drawn from respondents to previous surveys conducted by another research firm, Ipsos Tanzania.

Respondents were randomly selected, and the panel is nationally representative. This data is from the seventh round of calls to the panel, for which 3,000 respondents were called between 18 June and 12 July, 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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