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The annual budget of many countries depends on tax revenue collections. Therefore it is assumed that when there is poor tax revenue collection the economic growth of a country will be affected. The trends in Tanzania show that before the establishment of TRA, revenue collections were poor and the result automatically affected the annual budget. However, TRA Annual Report (2011/12, p.38) shows that the establishment of TRA tax revenue has led to a slight increase in revenue collection from 2005 to 2012. The main objective of the study was therefore to examine the role of tax revenue in Tanzania budget and analyze the efforts undertaken by TRA to increase tax revenue collection. Three key research questions guided this study were: What is the contribution of tax revenue in Tanzania budget? Why TRA fail to attain its revenue targets? What are the efforts undertaken by TRA to increase tax revenue collection?
A sample of 50 respondents was purposefully selected to obtain data from TRA and government officials. Respondents responded for 80 percent and data were collected by questionnaires and interviews. The findings showed that tax revenue contribute largely in Tanzania budget but fails to support the whole budget of Tanzania. Various reasons as to why TRA fails to meet the government budget expectations were established among tax compliancy, tax incentives, tax exemption, corruption and embezzlement of tax revenue in mining sector and shortage of staff to assess and enforce the tax revenue collection. Therefore TRA need to establish close monitoring of retail shops, restaurants, bars, groceries, guest houses, supermarkets associated with petroleum stations for vibrant tax revenue collection. With connections to these, implementation should be enforced. |
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