A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Award of the Degree of Master of Science in Accounting and Finance
(MSc A & F) of Mzumbe University
The study is about the impact of exempted property with respect in revenue
collection in local government in Tanzania, a case study of Ilala municipal council.
The study was looking for the sources available for revenue collection, methods used
in revenue collection, extent of exempted properties available in Ilala Municipal
Council and impediments facing valuation personnel in Ilala municipal council. The
study shows that, the Ilala Municipal council has fifteen (15) own sources of
revenue, namely: city service levy; advertising and billboard fees; property tax;
business licences; action mart and tender fees; bus terminal fees; abattoirs and
slaughter fees; motor vehicle parking fees; market dues and stall rent; medical
service fees; hostel levy; city building rent; town bus licences; intoxicating liquor
and sell of fish, however, Little emphasis is put in property tax collection by most
local governments besides the glaring fact that it is a good and stable source of
revenue and vital in their resource mobilization strategy. Strategies aimed at raising
revenue collection in Ilala council of taxes, namely, outsourcing strategy, selling of
properties of tax defaulters and involvement of local leaders.
Although Ilala Municipality applied three strategies to improve tax collection but this
objective/aim was not attained. It was observed in the study that, the suggested
strategies were very good; unfortunately the applications of these strategies were
very poor resulting to poor performance. This has led to Ilala Municipality to a large
degree to depend on the grants from the Central Government. Unfortunately the
grants have not been adequate to finance the envisaged council’s expenditure in the
last four years or so, especially on provision and maintenance of local infrastructure.
Also the study reveals that, tax exemptions have reached exorbitant heights and most
of the people said that, they result in large loss of revenues that are severely needed
for service delivery. As shown in the study, valuation personnel have difficult
working environment with low remuneration, few qualified valuers, and lack
adequate property cadastral maps.
It is here by recommended that, the government of Tanzania should Strengthening
real estate taxes, but with potential to transform local government finance in the