Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has appealed to businesspeople to effectively use electronic fiscal devices (EFDs) if they want to increase their business volume.
Taxpayers’ Education Officer for Kagera TRA Regional Branch Alex Mwambenja cited one of the advantages of using the EFDs as enabling businesspeople to keep proper records of their businesses and in turn he said it enabled TRA to make tax collection assessment.
He made the remarks while addressing businesspeople who attended a one-day seminar in Bukoba Municipal Council.
“EFDs enabled a businessperson to keep correct business records and in turn enables TRA to make correct tax assessment. Records can also enable a trader to get loans from financial institutions,” he said.
However, he warned that it was an offence for a person doing business with the annual turnover of 14m/- not to use EFDs, adding that such an offender could be subjected to a fine ranging between 3m/- and 4.5m/- or imprisonment of up to three years or both.
“Similar punishment also applies to businesspeople who tamper with EFDs,” he said.
He listed other offences as operating a business without EFDs, a customer ignoring to take a receipt, failure to submit tax returns to TRA and failure to inform TRA when the EFD was out of order.
Mr Mwambenja reminded the businesspeople that EFDs were very important because they enabled the government to collect tax, which went to finance socio development projects.
Meanwhile, TRA in Kagera Region has collected 18.21bn/- between July and November last year, surpassing a collection target by 11.64 per cent.
Regional TRA Manager Adam Ntoga told the ‘Sunday News’ in an interview that the regional revenue collection target for the first quarter (July-November) was 16.32bn/-.
He said the Domestic Revenue Department (DRD) had collected 9.84bn/-, surpassing the target of collecting 9.46bn/-, equivalent to 104 per cent.
On the other hand, the Customs and Excise Department (CED) collected about 8.38bn/- between July and November last year, thus surpassing the target of collecting 6.85bn/-, equivalent to 122.18 per cent.
Mr Ntoga further said TRA had collected 13.66bn/- from July to November in 2019. “Looking at this trend, there has been an increase rate of 4.55bn/-, equivalent to 33.31 per cent.
He attributed the good performance to tax compliance among taxpayers, continued awareness education and increased use of EFDs.
Other factors include sending regular reminders to taxpayers through text messages, adverts through local radios, road shows, teamwork spirit among all employees and support from other government institutions.
The regional manager appealed to taxpayers to adhere to tax laws and advised them to submit tax returns online and should ensure that they got receipts upon purchasing goods and services.
