AfricaPress-Tanzania: GOVERNMENT has strongly defended its decision to use a special task force in tax collection, saying legal procedures were followed in constituting the team.
The government issued its position when responding to concerns raised by Members of Parliament in relation to its decision to deploy a special task force in tax revenue collection.
According to the government, task forces are used where there is enough evidence on the presence of businessmen who are escaping to pay tax, and that Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has been leading the teams in all the operations.
The government’s position was issued yesterday in Parliament by the Minister of Justice and Constitution Affairs Dr Mwigulu Nchemba on behalf of the Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Phillip Mpango as he was winding up the government motion on the third Five-Year National Development Plan slated for 2021/22 to 2025/26 and priorities set in the proposals for the roadmap plans for the year 2021/2022.
During the debate, some legislators called upon the government to leave the tax collection responsibility to TRA instead of using task forces, which they said most often abuse the power bestowed upon them.
They argued that abuse of power by the task forces has been contributing to closure of some businesses.
Dr Nchemba assured the House that the task of collecting tax is still under TRA and that task forces are only formed whenever it is necessary, especially on curbing tax evasion by few unfaithful businessmen.
“The government has made great efforts in increasing the amount of tax being collected, and to a large extent, TRA has increased awareness on voluntary tax payment. Task forces will continue to be used on ensuring the government gets its money for national development,” he underscored.
During the debate, lawmakers called upon the government to harmonise the modalities for tax collection to protect the available business and attract many more for the country to be able to maintain implementation of development plans.
They were of the view that since the implementation of government projects required money, it was better for the taxman, Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), to put a conducive environment on approaches being used on revenue collections.
It all started with Geita Rural MP Joseph Musukuma who said in the House that there were businessmen who were closing their shops due to the unfavourable approach by the TRA in collecting taxes.
Mr Musukuma urged the government to be attentive and address challenges facing the business community, instead of rushing to charge penalties or close the shops whenever there was a delay on tax payment.
In another development, Dr Nchemba said Tanzania’s graduation to the list of middle income countries was made after considering a number of factors.
Some of them included the country’s improvement in the disbursement of budget for development budget, increase in road network, as well as improvement in social services in the health and education sector.
“This didn’t come as an overnight process, a lot of effort that was dedicated by the government through investments in development projects,” he said.
