Dar/Dodoma. Economists and businessmen in Tanzania said yesterday that President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s address to the nation on Thursday was full of hope.
They noted that the private sector, if well supervised, would get strengthened and the number of taxpayers would increase as well.
President Hassan addressed the nation after swearing-in some ministers and deputy ministers.
The head of state used that opportunity to direct the Finance and Planning ministry to ensure it sought new avenues of revenue collections and create more taxpayers so that revenue collections could reach Sh2 trillion per month.
The President said the habit of using excessive power in revenue collections was killing many businesses in the country and forcing some businessmen to move to neighbouring countries, where they opened businesses.
On June 7, 2019, the Fifth Phase President, the late John Magufuli, led the meeting of his government and businessmen, whom he gave the chance of mentioning the challenges they were facing in doing their businesses.
The businessmen mentioned a number of challenges, including the government’s bureaucracy, a multiplicity of taxes and threats during revenue and duty collections.
They also mentioned a multitude of the government’s institutions that collected taxes and charges, closure of businesses due to high taxes and unreal tax estimates.
However, the government has been saying that it has started working on proposals given by the businessmen through a business blueprint including reducing a multitude of taxes.
Tanzania’s business community secretary general, Abdallah Mwinyi, said the President’s statement about creating a good tax environment was full of hope for businessmen in the country.
He was of the view that if the tax issue had been worked upon properly, it would have made the businessmen have more confidence in doing their businesses and the number of investors would have increased in the country.
Touching on the closure of businesses, Mr Mwinyi said the situation was currently bad due to unrealistic tax estimates, something that harmed the businessmen and some decided to close their businesses.
An expert in tax issues, Johnson Minja, echoed with Mwinyi, saying that the businessmen faced many challenges in the context of doing their businesses. He said the challenges emanated from ports, Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and local government authorities.
“So, with the statement from the head of state, we have great hopes that things are now going to change,” said Mr Minja.
He added, “These are some kind of words that we have been longing to hear because they encourage the private sector to move forward.”
University of Dar es Salaam lecturer, Dr Abel Kinyondo, said the business community was happy because the government had realized the concept of tax just as a cow that was not supposed to be milked to blood and instead reared well so that it could continue to give milk.
A prominent businessman, Peter Olomi, said that for several years Tanzania had recognized and given a priority to both farmers and workers, but businessmen were not as they were just like orphaned children.
“The President (Samia) has ingested into us a new vigour to ensure we move with her forward for the nation to economically prosper through working hard because she knows us well,” said Olomi.
Oil and diesel dealer Faustine Mwakalinga said President Hassan’s statement would make those businessmen, who wanted to relocate to foreign lands not to do so and those who were keeping their money in their homes to deposit their cash into bank accounts.
“Businessmen were afraid of depositing their money in bank accounts because they feared that the government would confiscate their money. A businessman is supposed to be educated about the regulations of paying taxes.”
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