Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Commissioner General Harry Kitilwa recently announced that the objective of collecting 9 trillion TZS of tax revenues for the financial year 2012/13 will be reached.
“Our collections against the country gross domestic product are increasing. The outlook looks bright” stated Mr Kitilwa.
As an example, the TRA has collected an impressive 8.7 billion TZS in domestic revenues between July and September 2012.
TRA is responsible of collecting an ambitious 8.7 trillion TZS in tax revenues for 2012/13 (5.5 billion USD) needed to finance the national budget.
The national budget is set this year at 16 trillion TZS (10 billion USD).
Overall tax compliance has improved in Tanzania, resulting in a 17% increase of collections compared to last year’s TRA tax revenues of 6.5 trillion TZS (4 billion USD).
The TRA states it still has a lot of work left to do, to ensure a blanket collection of taxes throughout the country.
TRA warned about the abuse of the tax exemptions currently available, claiming that some institutional donors and NGOs have been not fully forthcoming of revenue taxable.
TRA announced that measures will be taken to tackle misconduct, whereby these institutions could be exempted from any future tax benefits.
In order to promote investment inflow into Tanzania, tax benefits such as deferred VAT and exemptions on import duties are granted to investors.
