Magufuli issues seven day ultimatum to his ministers

President Dr. John Magufuli on Monday this week issued a seven-day ultimatum to all ministers to work on critical challenges haunting the business community in the country. He particularly directed the Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Philip Mpango (pictured) and Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Commissioner General Charles Kichere to meet and deliberate on the best strategy to reduce the burden of backlog taxes to traders. Speaking at the 11th Tanzania National Business Council’s (TNBC) meeting at State House in Dar es Salaam, the business community raised concern over the outstanding debts that were accumulated over many years. Responding, Dr Magufuli ordered the ministry and TRA to meet with businesspeople and renegotiate on the outstanding amount that can fairly be paid to ease the tax burden that threatens many businesses in the country. “We should have a human face and avoid being too rigid because the government relies on the business community to raise revenue,’’ said the president, arguing that if for instance the businessperson owes TRA money that was accumulated in 10 years, the taxman can forego five years and collect the amount accumulated for five years. Winding up the day-long meeting, President Magufuli directed all ministers whose dockets traders blamed during the discussions to address the raised issues within one week, with the view of improving the country’s business environment. The business hurdles that traders complained of include nuisance taxes that affect trade and investment in the country, bureaucracy within the government institutions and indiscriminate imports that flood the domestic market, rendering the home manufactured goods uncompetitive, as well as outdated laws. President Magufuli tasked the ministers to prepare answers and solutions to all the raised challenges and submit the document to Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa within one week for the government to devise appropriate measures to improve the business environment. 

Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) Chairman Reginald Mengi assured that the private sector will continue investing in modern industrial plants and maintaining tax compliance. He commended the government for proper supervision of the economy, proper investment environment and adequate access to business loans. “Next month, we expect to have another conference that will create awareness to industrialists and the private sector to invest more in the industrial economy,” he said. On projects being executed by foreign contractors, Mr Mengi said there is need to amend the laws to compel foreign contractors to team up with their local counterparts to transfer skills that will help the local contractors to execute similar projects in future. The TPSF chairman further proposed that in the 2018/2019 budget, the government should think of reducing taxes that frustrate businesspeople, singling out Skills and Development Levy (SDL). He said TPSF receives many complaints from businesspeople over TRA’s unfair calculations of various taxes. “In our previous meeting, we proposed areas that should be looked at to improve the business environment and we commend the government that many of them have been fully addressed,’’ he said. Mr Mengi said there was political will among the political class and that TPSF was happy with the manner the government has managed to intensify the war against graft. In his remarks, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa promised to address all the issues that were raised by the businesspeople during an open discussion. He asked the business community to grab various opportunities in the ongoing major projects in the country, including the Hoima-Tanga crude oil pipeline, Stiegler’s Gorge, Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and Lindi based Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). “So far, over 39 local companies have started to grab opportunities in these projects and our intention is to create the best business environment in the country to benefit all parties,’’ he said