TPSF gives proposals on stimulating Tanzania economy

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) CEO, Mr John Ulanga has pointed out areas of business policies that need to be improved in order to stimulate economic activities in the country.

Besides that, the TPSF boss has promised to keep addressing the challenge of little capital facing the private sector and the quality of products manufactured by some of its members.

“The most talked about is the ability of owners of businesses to predict the entire tax system, we need to increase the level of predictability in other areas too,” Mr Ulanga suggested.

He said the entire tax system or estimation and payment of taxes needs to switch to the increased use of technology, advising that it could even be much better to learn from other successful nations.

He also said there is the need of expanding the scope of that technology, saying the challenge has been that there are many income earners but few tax payers.

He gave an example, saying that everyone could pay taxes on their other earnings through their phones, expressing that there is more work to be done on the actual estimations of tax predictability and the scope of tax collections in order to reduce the burden of the individual taxpayer.

On some regions with littler rates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) despite having many opportunities, he suggested that challenges in the investment attractions of the country should be addressed.

He also advised that regions should be given the authority to suggest what they can do to attract investors including the issuance of title deeds without red-tapes.

He noted that the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) is currently performing well, doing an annual audits so that when the year ends, the tax issues for that year are over.

He said the growth of GDP in those regions will depend on activities in the agriculture sector and that they need to be given special priority and protection.

Statistically, he said, the agriculture sector is growing more rapidly than other sectors, despite not having been successful in attracting large investments.

He said there are some challenges when it comes to selling farm products, making investors afraid of investing in the agriculture sector.

He also said TPSF also intends to encourage the use of technology in linking its members to foreign business opportunities.

He said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that is to be opened soon ‘is the best of all opportunities.’

He also said his institution intends to cooperate with Tanzanian embassies and foreign institutions similar to TPSF in order to identify opportunities for business cooperation.