The MP told the National Assembly that there was a huge amount of uncollected taxes from shops and restaurants due to indiscriminate sale of products and services without receipts. The legislator proposed the deployment of police officers to compel traders and customers to issue and demand receipts, respectively. Prof Sigalla faulted the envisaged transfers of 50m/- to every village as ineffective.
“There is no economy of transferring free money to the people,” he said, saying the over 5bn/- that Makete is entitled to under the programme is sufficient to establish the more beneficial community development bank or address the issue of water.
Ms Mary Chatanda (Korogwe Urban-CCM) attributed the tax evasion to lack of culture to demand receipt among majority people, proposing the introduction of receipt demanding culture at primary school level.
“We have a serious problem of not demanding receipts for the purchases we make,” decried the legislator, saying many petrol stations were not effectively using the Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs) to evade taxes.
Mr Musa Azan (Ilala-CCM) accused mining companies in the country of rampant tax evasion through miss-invoicing and transfer pricing, advising TRA and Tanzania Mineral Audit Agency to work closely against the tax dodging in the mining sector.
He supported the introduction of the 10 per cent excise duty on charges or fees payable by people to telecommunication service providers, describing the mobile phone companies as money minters, which must pay the due taxes.
The MP belittled the public outcry over the proposed tax, saying: “It is high time Tanzanians change our mindset and embrace payment of tax as our moral obligation.” He, however, was among MPs who spoke bitterly against the proposed tax on lawmakers’ gratuity.
Finance and Planning Minister Dr Philip Mpango, proposed when presenting the 2016/17 national budget estimates here last Wednesday, the removal of income tax exemption on final gratuity to MPs to promote equity and fairness in taxation.
Mr Hussein Bashe (Nzega Urban-CCM) opposed the proposed tax on gratuity unless it was imposed fairly on all politicians. “Why single out only MPs? For fairness sake, let us all -- the president, ministers, regional commissioners, district commissioners, speaker and you deputy speaker-- pay it,” he said.
He denounced the proposed Value Added Tax (VAT) on tourism, saying the move will cripple the country’s competitiveness and ultimately kill the sector. Ms Jacqueline Ngonyani (Special Seats-CCM) warned Dr Mpango against the proposed tax on gratuity, describing the issue as highly sensitive to all MPs.
However, Mr Bashe faulted the proposed tax increase on second-hand clothes, saying the move will harm the ordinary people because the country doesn’t have textile industries to produce clothes to meet the country demand.
The MPs also decried the small budget for the National Audit Office, proposing increased allocation to enable the office play its watchdog role effectively.
Culled from Daily News
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