Tanzania's government is planning to form an independent authority specifically for collecting and administering non-tax revenues, the country's deputy minister for Finance Mwigulu Nchemba said this week.

Speaking in Dar es Salaam during the official opening of the 3rd African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) General Assembly Conference, Mr Nchemba said that non-tax revenues in the country are presently being collected by agents, making it difficult to monitor all the collected monies.

“Agents are all over the country; they collect tax on behalf of the government, but they have been enriching themselves leaving municipalities in dire poverty. As the government, we plan to form an authority that will deal specifically with non-tax revenues,” said Mr Nchemba.

He said that the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has been doing a good job of collecting and administering different forms of tax.

“If such a body is formed to collect and administer non-tax revenues I am sure the government, specifically the municipal councils, will be able to obtain enough revenue they need to implement their development plans.” He insisted that it was mandatory for every Tanzanian to be tax compliant if the country is to attain significant social and economic development.

“We want to move from the tendency which has seen only a few rich middle income earners paying tax, which is then spent for the benefit of a large population that evade paying tax; we will ensure every person who is eligible to pay tax in this country pays,” he said.

Commissioners general and tax experts from 37 countries across the Continent are meeting in Tanzania to discuss, among other things, the challenges of revenue systems and collection in the continent. They hope to come up with effective ways to ensure tax systems are tightened so that multilateral companies operating in Africa pay tax accordingly.

“Multilateral companies have been very notorious in evading tax; they declare losses every now in Africa but the same companies declare profits in their mother companies, we want to come up with a strategy that will help us monitor them effectively and see to it that they pay tax accordingly,” said TRA Commissioner General Rished Bade.

He noted that transfer pricing, wasteful tax incentives, unfavourable tax treaties and tax fraud are key challenges which the continent needs to address jointly. “It is very important for tax administrations to join hands with tax policy makers to jointly address the challenges we face.”