Tanzanian Controller and Auditor General (CAG) Unveils Long Standing Tax Objection Cases

THE Controller and Auditor General (CAG), Professor Mussa Assad, has discovered long
standing tax objection cases, which have denied the government revenue amounting to 6.9 trillion/-.

Such cases, according to the CAG report presented before the National Assembly here on Monday, were pending before different Tax Appeals Machineries such as Tax Revenue Appeals Board, Tax Revenue Appeals Board and the Court of Appeal.

In his summary of audit reports for the 2014/2015 financial year ending June, last year, the CAG pointed out that such amount was an increase of 5.2tri/-, which is equivalent to 75 per cent as compared to 1.7tri/- worth of cases unveiled in the 2013/2014 fiscal year.

“This is attributed to lack of funds and tax experts before the Tax Appeals Board, Tribunal and Court of Appeal and laxity of finding timely resolution of the received cases by the registrar, indicating inefficiency of the revenue appeals system,” Prof Assad said in his report.

He revealed further that application for tax objections amounting to 580,718,607,384/- were not attended to and resolved by the Commissioner General (CG) of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) as of June 30, last year.

Prof Assad recommended that the government should expedite the hearings of tax appeals at various stages of appealing machineries to enable timely collection of government revenue.

He also called on the government to declare amnesty of interests and penalties on voluntary disclosure of tax liability and offer instalment payment of tax liabilities enabling taxpayers to clear their principal sums of all outstanding taxes in arrears.

In the 2013/2014 financial year, the CAG unveiled several short-comings which are denying the government some revenue, including unresolved tax appeals cases worth over 1.7tri/-, pending before Tax Machineries.

Prof Assad pointed out that 261.19bn/- worth of the cases were stuck at the Tax Revenue Appeals Tribunal for a long time, while the remaining amount of 1,455.04bn/- were waiting decisions of the Tax Revenue Appeal Board.

The CAG, therefore, proposed for fast disposal of the cases in question and that the TRA management should double its efforts to improve the inspection and investigation process to reduce complaints between the Authority and tax payers.

Source: The Daily News