Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has called on religious institutions offering social services to be transparent in their financial books, to avoid being taxed by the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA).
She was responding to a concern by leaders of the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) in Morogoro yesterday that religious institutions are being charged taxes on social services they are offering, mostly in the education and health sectors.
The CCT Chairman, Bishop Alinikisa Cheyo told the president that religious institutions have been billed with various taxes despite the fact tha they aren’t business-oriented.
“All we are doing is to provide services, our institutions aren’t for business,” he said at the CCT’s Congress. The concern was the same as what was said by the leaders of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC) hardly two weeks ago, on the need for the government’s intervention into the matter.
Yesterday, the Head of State said the government has been charging tax to schools and health facilities under religious institutions because some of them are operating in the same way as other private entities.
“This is done to control competition in services being offered by the private sector and religious institutions. Some of your facilities charge higher rates than those in the public institutions,” she said.
The only solution to this is for religious institutions to be open and transparent in all the financial books, this will be a permanent solution to the concerns, as the TRA will be able to know whether you are doing business or not.
There are some religious institutions running schools and health centres that are fully funded by donors, however, they were asked to pay tax for their operation, this confusion was a result of lack of transparency,” she explained.
President Samia, meanwhile, told the religious leaders that the government has started to review all taxes for the sake of removing nuisance charges including Skills Development Levy (SDL) that have attracted public concerns for a long time. She said the move is part of efforts to improve the business and investment climate for the country’s economic growth.
Responding to the concerns of the delay in the issuance of work and residence permits to foreign experts for religious institutions, President Samia said the government has taken deliberate efforts to address the challenge.
“The Immigration Department and labour division have worked on my directives that have seen its transformation in the issuance of work and residence permits for foreigners, right now, the permits can be obtained online,” she said.
She went on to explain that the permits can now be accessed between one and three days from the date of application, compared to the past, where the applicant was supposed to wait for up to 14 days.
President Samia also commended CCT for continuing to support the government through religious preaching that helps in maintaining peace and unity in the country.
The CCT compliments the government efforts on providing education and health services to Tanzanians; as a result, the country has been able to record the current development. The CCT owns a total of 255 education institutions including 25 Primary schools, 163 secondary schools, ten seminary schools, 25 vocational training colleges and five universities.
Also, the CCT has 424 health institutions including 349 dispensaries, 30 heath centres, 40 district hospitals, three regional referral hospitals as well as two zonal referral hospitals.
