PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa has
prevented Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) from collecting property tax from
senior citizens aged above 60 years, adding that the tax watchdog should
observe the laws of the country.
“TRA should prepare to collect
property tax from July 1, 2017 and in the discharge of this exercise they
should obey the law, and, all residential houses owned by people of above 60
years should not be taxed,’’ he said.
Mr Majaliwa issued the directive
yesterday when addressing residents of Chato district who attended the
inauguration of the TRA building, in the district, Geita region.
The Premier directed the TRA officials
to collect property tax from the urban centres and not in rural areas because
those in the rural areas were not supposed to pay that tax.
“Don’t go to the rural areas because
the grass-thatched houses cannot be taxed…go around the areas in the urban
centres and allocate all the buildings that are supposed to pay tax and put
measures in place that will provide room for payment.
Amid a cheering crowd, Mr Majaliwa
asked residents to demand receipts when purchasing various goods. “When given those receipts make sure you
cross check if the value of money used to buy those products is similar to that
written on your receipts,’’ he stressed.
He added that that there were few
individuals who were playing around figures to evade tax, for example a person
buying a product at 100,000/- may end up with a receipt with 10,000/-.
Earlier on when giving a report on
the construction of the newly inaugurated building, TRA Commissioner General,
Charles Kicheere said the construction begun on July 12 last year and that it
was completed on June 12 this year.
“The building cost the government
1.4bn/- and its need came after an increase of the number of tax payers in
Chato district from 150 people in 2010/2011 to 600 people in 2016/2017,’’ he
said.
According to him, the building would
reduce a distance and chaos as initially the tax payers were forced to commute
up to 120 kilometres to Geita Regional Headquarters to settle their outstanding
dues.
He added that in the next few days
TRA would accomplish the construction of other buildings in Mara and Iringa as
well as putting up other buildings in the regions of Simiyu, Katavi, Njombe and
Manyara. Also, he added, the tax watchdog would have another building in the
newly established special tax region of Kahama.
According to Mr Kicheere, the new
districts that would soon open TRA offices are Kondoa, Longido, Bunda and
Arumeru. In the next fiscal year, TRA expects to collect 17.106trillion/-.
No comments:
Post a Comment