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Saturday, June 21, 2014 

Tanzania move on new tax exemptions timely

Editor,

It is timely that the Tanzania government has made a move on taming tax exemptions.

In the 2014/15 national budget, finance minister, Saada Mkuya said the powers to approve exemptions will no longer be left to her ministry. Secondly exemptions will be given out for exceptional cases.

I think this is a very important step, because I believe this power has been often abused in the past. 

People with political influence have been able to dodge paying. They have made huge profits at the expense of diverting revenues away from the national Treasury.

However, I was hoping that the government would also review the tax exemptions already in place for relevant investors.

Not to penalise them, but to make sure that they too are living up to their obligations as part of these exemptions. For example, have they created the employment as promised and are they producing as laid out in their business plans. We must be tough!

Francis Mendetta

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

By Francis Mendetta, Saturday, June 21st, 2014