FOLLOWING amendments on the Finance Act 2016, the government has collected more than 3 billion/- from two telecommunications firms in the country in July alone.
Speaking before the Infrastructure
Development Parliamentary Committee, Assistant Manager (Large Taxpayers
Department) of Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Mr Godwin Barongo, said
this was made possible by the installation of the Telecommunication
Traffic Monitoring System (TTMS).
Mr Barongo explained that the TTMS,
installed by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA),
has been helpful in getting data and report of money transfers, which
are then compared with reports given by the telecommunication companies,
who are the tax-payers.
“In essence, TTMS also acts as a
compliance monitoring tool, because telecommunication companies know
that there is a monitoring system in place, they provide correct data
which has helped a lot,” Mr Barongo, who was representing the
Commissioner General explained.
Citing an example of July, Mr Barongo
noted that Vodacom used to pay an average of 360m/- per month on excise
duty on money transfers but in July, the company paid 1.9bn/-, while
Tigo, which used to pay an average of 250m/- per month, paid 1.48bn/- in
the same period.
Responding to questions from the
committee as to why the telecommunication companies are not among the
top ten revenue payers, Mr Barongo explained that companies are
categorised according to sectors.
On money transfers, according to the TRA
official, compliance level has shot up tremendously and with the
amendment of the Finance Act of 2016, whose implementation started in
July, this year, revenue from the telecommunication companies has
increased tenfold.
Mr Barongo noted that together with
TCRA, they are now focusing on capturing revenue on all products in the
telecommunication industry at activation point through the proposed
Telecommunication Revenue Assurance System (TRASS).
“When the user tops up from a scratch
card, we will see the money; likewise with electronic top up through
M-pesa and Tigo Pesa and the others. With this in place, revenue will
likely go up,” he explained to the committee members, who were so
pleased with the work done by the two institutions so far.
The TRA official noted that the system
will be able to categorise revenue from voice, short messages (SMS) and
data. He noted that the Tanzania Telecommunication Company Ltd (TTCL)’s
contribution is still low and needs to be assisted.
On his part, the TCRA Acting Director
General, Engineer James Kilamba, said TTMS has also helped to capture
revenue from telecommunication calls outside Tanzania whose subscribers
made calls to telephone subscribers in Tanzania.
Responding to question as why TCRA did
not prosecute mobile money fraudsters or those who use the phones to
insult others, Eng Kilamba said TCRA did not have the mandate to take
the culprits to court, but usually avails the needed data to security
organs that have the mandate.
The Deputy Minister for Works, Transport
and Communications, Engineer Edwin Ngonyani, noted that the only way to
give mandate to TCRA was through changing the respective laws.
Earlier, Mr Ahmed Shabiby (Gairo-CCM),
Mr Abbas Mwinyi (Fuoni-CCM), Mr William Dua Nkurua (Nanyumbu-CCM) and
several other MPs claimed that they had fallen prey to fraudsters, who
hijacked their numbers and sent out messages asking for money from
friends and relatives.
On his part, the Acting Chairperson of
the Committee, Mr Selemani Moshi Kakoso (Mpanda Rural-CCM), commended
the government through TCRA and TRA for implementing the committee’s
directives that have seen an increase in government revenue from the
telecommunication companies.
Mr Kakoso stressed that the
collaboration between the entities should be deepened and a team formed
to ensure more revenue avenues are identified.
He directed TCRA to cooperate with
telecommunication companies to reduce money theft where unscrupulous
persons hack other people’s accounts and use them to con people.
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