Traders avoid using electronic fiscal devices: survey

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Mlagiri Kopoka

Despite the scorching sun taking its toll on Liberty, the Mwanza City Street is packed with pedestrians and vehicles ranging from light to heavy cargo trucks of different shapes.

Hundreds of traders and porters throng the stores on either sides of the street as if a swarm of bees had raided the city’s consumer goods trade hub.

One does not have to become an economist to perceive that the thriving business on the streets is minting millions of shillings in government revenue daily.

A quick survey around the shops, however, reveals a gross business irregularity. The shops do not use electronic tax register devices as required by the law.

And few of the shops furnished with the devices, the shopkeepers issue hand written receipts to customers in case they demand them.

Yet the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) reports that over 90 per cent of business entities countrywide were registered with the value added tax (VAT) using the electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs) by December.

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