AUTHORITIES at the national revenue authority have disputed some stakeholder accusations on tax practices in relation to existing government directives on the matter.

A senior official with the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) issued a statement to this effect yesterday in reference to a front page news story run in yesterday’s issue of this paper, quoting Songwe Region miners as having said that TRA was ignoring directives on tax backlogs.

The official expressed dissatisfaction with the story, stating that it did not give the reporter’s name when saying that TRA officials still charge miners on the basis of tax debts from several years ago.

He said that implied that TRA was ignoring the government’s position on the matter, which he disputed, arguing that the point was not checked for further clarification from the TRA Songwe Office or headquarters “much as TRA was not in that meeting”. 

The TRA official also noted that the reporter or the source of the news further included other levies such as mining inspection fees to be collected by TRA in the form of tax, describing that as not correct and arguing that the matter was administered by the Tanzania Mining Commission. 

“Please, be informed that after the assessments have been issued to taxpayers which might have originated from tax audits, examination, investigation or sometimes normal taxes, taxpayers are given an opportunity after the expiry of due dates to enter into agreements to pay the taxes on instalments basis as the case may be,” said the statement. 

It added: “On other hand, the commissioner general has opened a window for taxpayers with tax debts to apply for a waiver of interests and penalties which form part of previous assessments. Taxpayers are advised to utilise this vital opportunity which can help them to reduce their tax debts.”

It said the (TRA) commissioner general had set Thursday in each week as a special day for receiving and attending to taxpayers’ problems, as the case may be, advising any aggrieved taxpayers to visit the nearest TRA office “whenever they come across problems in doing business.”