New tricks to cheat EFDs uncovered

BERNARD LUGONGO

THE Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has uncovered new tricks being applied by some dishonest business people to cheat the government’s order wanting them to issue receipts from Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs) for each transaction made.

Such fraud has been uncovered following the ongoing countrywide operation, which started early this month to enforce the newly-legislated Finance Act 2016.

The act requires traders to issue receipts for each transaction made in the provision of goods and services while customers too are required to demand receipts for the goods and services they pay for.

It seeks to instil discipline and develop the habit among the people to demand receipts.

There is a penal code for offenders, with customers found without a receipt(s) liable to a fine of ranging between 30,000/- and 150,000/-, depending on the value of the traded commodities or services offered.

TRA’s Director of Education and Taxpayer Services, Mr Richard Kayombo, told the ‘Daily News’ yesterday that such deceit by unscrupulous traders include cheating customers by telling them that their EFD machines could not issue receipts, citing network problems.

“For the EFDs to issue the receipts, they don’t need a network. The network is needed only when the traders need to send us reports of their day’s sales,” Mr Kayombo said. He added that the authority wondered how it is possible that a network is unavailable a whole day while the network used is the same as applied in mobile phones,” he wondered.

He called on individuals to reject unavailability of network as a reason for not getting the receipts from the traders. Mr Kayombo said it has been noticed that some traders tend to issue outdated receipts to customers who persistently ask for receipts.

“There are some traders who capitalise on the habit of some customers -- of not checking their receipts by issuing them with outdated receipts, which they store under the counter for issuing to demanding shoppers,” he noted.

The senior TRA official appealed to shoppers to report such traders to appropriate authorities to enable appropriate measures to be taken against them. He said the people must look for TRA labels; Taxpayers number (TIN) and date on the receipts -- to confirm their authenticity.

However, the main challenge remains the poor response from the people in demanding receipts; oblivious of the fact that such indifference could provide a chance to the business people to pocket the money that is supposed to be paid as tax.

Meanwhile, he cautioned that there was a danger that non- TRA officials could use the current operation to extort money from customers who don’t possess receipts.

On the ongoing exercise to distribute free EFDs to business people in Dar es Salaam, TRA Principal Research Officer, Mr Beldom Chaula, called on traders to report agents who solicit money before issuing the EFDs, insisting that the machines were earmarked for traders who could not afford to buy them.

The authority had planned to supply 5,700 EFD machines to traders in the city.

TRA has meanwhile confirmed that there was enough stock for supplying the machines, noting that suppliers had the capacity to meet demand.