MPs who were debating estimates for financial year 2015/2016 and the state of economy report for the current fiscal year also urged the government to widen tax base by identifying new sources of taxes and cut costs in its operations.
Special Seats MP Magdalena Sakaya (CUF) cited fishing in the Indian Ocean and other water bodies as among areas where the government could collect revenues to fund its budget.
“The government could collect a lot of revenues from the fishing industry but very little has been done to tap taxes in the area,” the MP charged.
She as well challenged the government to cut costs by avoiding fuel-guzzling vehicles which are used by many top executives including ministers and their deputies, permanent secretaries in addition to regional and district commissioners.“It is also high time the government stopped procuring office furniture from abroad since the trend put more pressure in the local currency against foreign currencies such as US dollar,” she urged.
Ms Sakaya added: “We need to empower the youth to make such furnishings since our country is endowed with enormous forest products.
It does not make sense for us to export timber and logs and yet we import furniture from other countries.” The vocal MP blamed unnecessary imports, including furniture and other products, for destabilising the local currency and called for measures to reverse the situation.
According to the MP, hardly 2 million people in the country pay taxes and yet there are over 15 million potential taxpayers. For her part, Special Seats MP Amina Mwidau (CUF) suggested establishment of a real estate regulatory authority to tap property taxes from house owners.
“Many people owning houses do not pay taxes; so having the regulator will enable the state to collect more revenues from the industry,” Ms Mwidau, who doubles as the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), suggested.
She also took issues with tax evasion by some unscrupulous importers, citing a report by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) which showed that goods worth 800bn/- meant for transit was dumped in the local market and thus denying the government requisite import taxes.
Chalinze MP Ridhiwani Kikwete urged the government to put more focus on Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and Export Processing Zones (EPZ) to enable the country produce products for exports to stabilize the local currency.
The MP cited the envisaged EPZ at Zinga in Bagamoyo, which he observed has failed to take off despite its potential to produce products for exports and generate foreign exchange for the economy.
/Daily News.
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