DAR
ES SALAA and NAIROBI
For
the first time in more than 50 years of Tanzania independence, President John
Magufuli and his government have decided to establish the Independent Office of
Taxpayers Ombudsman that will operate under the arm of the Ministry of Finance
and Planning to resolve business community’s complains against Tanzania’s
Revenue Authority (TRA).
President
Magufuli’s government is making quick transformations in the business sector to
remove obstacles that TRA has been imposing on the business community that have
resulted into many businesses to close down as well causing the government to lose
revenues.
Presenting
to the National Assembly the estimates of government Revenue and Expenditure
budget for 2019/2020 in Dodoma this week, the Finance Minister and Planning Dr.
Philip Mpango said the independent
office of Taxpayers Ombudsman will receive tax complains from taxpayers and the
public in general on how TRA is operating in the country.
Specifically,
Dr. Mpango said the ombudsman office will receive complains from the public and
taxpayers about TRA corrupt officials and take necessary legal and disciplinary
measures. Moreover, the office will also receive complains about the excessive
use of force by TRA officials to taxpayers in revenues collection.
Moreover,
the office will receive complaints about unjust and non- genuine tax estimates
conducted by TRA officials from taxpayers against the revenue authority
regulations and policies.
Furthermore,
the office will receive complaints of improper business closing fuelled by TRA
officials without legal procedures as stipulated in the tax laws of the
country.
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| President Magufuli |
Very
interestingly, the office will receive information about tax evasion or
avoidance from whistleblowers. This means it is the office of the general public
against TRA officials and business people who don’t like to pay tax to
government.
Research
and Reports of Tax Ombudsman Office in other countries
Research
conducted in various countries show that the establishment of tax ombudsman
offices have been very successful in containing misbehaviours of revenue
authorities. The research by Tariq Husain of Pakistan (2010) on the role of
ombudsman in promoting public service delivery confirms the enduring relevance
of ombudsman as an instrument of accountability and good governance in
Pakistan.
The
findings elaborate ombudsmen’s achievement in terms of addressing
maladministration, which is the primary objective of ombudsmen according to the
statutes.
The
South African tax ombudsman report 2017/2018 has shown clearly that since the
establishment of the office in the past six years, the office has created some
confidence in taxpayers as to the fairness they can expect to receive from the
tax administration system
The Canada Tax Ombudsman 2017-2018 Annual Report
titled Effecting Change, which was tabled in Parliament last year
by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue, Deborah
Schulte, stated
clearly that in that financial year new 1,922 complaints were received; up by 29%
from the previous fiscal year. Other 2,255 issues were closed; up by 40% from
the previous fiscal year.
According to the
report, most common areas of complaint were: Delays in processing individual
income tax and benefit (T1) returns; Lack of clarity in the information
received from the CRA concerning T1 tax returns; Delays in processing
for T1 adjustment requests;
Others in the list
were: lack of consistent information when dealing with agents at the
individual tax enquiries telephone line; Lack of timeliness in processing
and clarity of information concerning the Canada child benefit; and
Lack of fairness of debt collections processes for T1 tax
and benefit returns.
The
establishment of the tax ombudsman office in the country comes few days
after President Magufuli spent more than
10 hours in the state house with traders’ discussing the difficulties they were
facing in doing business especially obstacles relating to tax administration.
The President has ever since appointed a new TRA boss.
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