Revenue tribunal registers 4 trillion/- appeals

JIMMY LWANGILI

Deputy Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Ashatu Kijaji

A TOTAL of 1,354 appeals worth over 4 trillion/- have been filed by tax payers for the past 15 years at the Tax Revenue Appeals Tribunal (TRAT) against Value Added Tax (VAT), income tax and custom duty.

The Deputy Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Ashatu Kijaji, said such appeals do not include cases worth 443 million US dollars. The deputy minister explained that there were 440 appeals pending and 914 appeals have been disposed.

Dr Kijaji presented the figures in Dar es Salaam yesterday during the launch of the new version of the tax law reports for 2009- 2010.

The occasion attended by various tax stakeholders from various companies and institutions including representatives from international financial institutions, World Bank and the International Money Fund (IMF). “This number of cases is large considering that the bulk of tax cases submitted to the TRAT are increasing every year.

Also the rate of tax complained and which cannot be collected without completing decisions is widening annually,” she said. According to her, in 2013, 2014 and 2015 there were tax disputes worth 894m and that up to August this year tax disputes worth 2.4tri/-.

This indicates that the rate of tax complaints will continue to increase year after year,” Dr Kijaji noted.

Moreover, she urged TRAT, Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and various stakeholders of tax in general to seriously assess taxes to avoid unnecessary tax complaints, adding that the government will make sure that tax administrative institutions including TRA and TRAT are strengthening and allocated enough budgets to work affectively.

Speaking at the same occasion, the Chairman of Editorial Board of TRAT, Dr Kabuta Ongwamuhana, said the first version of tax law reports launched on 2009 included decisions of 105 cases of 2002 to 2004. The second version launched November 2012 which included decisions of 198 cases of the year 2005 to 2008.

He added that the third version that was launched yesterday published cases 103 of the years 2009 to 2010; as decisions of cases of the years 2011 to 2012 are still in final editing.

“The challenge we face is that we still have several copies of past versions that have not taken. As a board, we continue to consult several design techniques to improve the distribution of the publications we produce. I personally and all the editorial board believe that this will be achieved,” said Dr Ongwamuhana