Councilors wants investors to pay taxes in district council

The councilors’ committee for Longido district council in Arusha region has called upon investors in tourism hunting sectors to pay tax revenues to their council instead of directly paying the money to villages surrounding them as the case now. They made a concern in their normal meetings over the weekend and noted that, investing companies have been paying revenues arising from the hunting activities which are taking place in their district level to villages surrounding them, an aspect that denies revenues to the main district council. Speaking during the meeting proceedings, the chairman of the district council Josepgh Ole Sadira said that, there is a need to review contracts which allows the investors pay such money directly to villages surrounding them so that the district council should start receiving them with immediate effect. However, the chairman’s call came after having realized that in their audit reports the surrounding villages surpassed the district council in terms of revenue collection an aspect which he termed as a great shame and wanted the councilors to look at the matter more closely. 

President Jakaya Kikwete greets residents of Longido during his tour of tre district recently.

“This is a problem and therefore we want lawyers to review the contracts as soon as possible so that the main district council should benefit with the on-going investments in the district”, he said. He noted that, one reason is that his council is faced with challenges of having fewer sources of revenues while the main sources which are entirely depended by the council is only cattle auctions which he said are not enough to supply the council with sufficient money. “It is impossible to have sources of revenues and then the revenues are not collected to meet the needs of the social and economic for the people in the district”, he said. On his part, the councilor for Olmolong ward in the district, Mathias Mollel was surprised by the way the Longido district council is collecting its revenues from petty traders and forget big investors in the district, an aspect which he said cannot be tolerated. On his part the Director of the District Council, Julius Chalya said that money received from investors are not supposed to be charged twice as such investors pay revenues to the villages surrounding them. He said according to the country’s investment laws, such investors are paying taxes directly to the central government and that the district council benefits only 25 percent of the investment potentials.