Tax evaders in tourism industry in Tanzania warned

Arusha. Tourism service providers evading tax should better settle their arrears or close up.

“No business will be allowed to violate taxation laws,” warned the Commissioner for Domestic Revenue with the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Mr Elijah Mwandumbya.

Mr Mwandumbya said non-compliant tour companies taking visitors to national parks and other sites risked being stopped at the gates until they were cleared by the taxman.

He issued the warning in a series of meetings with the industry stakeholders in Arusha and Manyara regions this week at the start of a special audit targeting the tourism sector.

He said TRA has embarked on the exercise after realising that only 600 registered tour companies and business organisations out of 2,200 scattered across the country were tax compliant.

Over 1,400 of them are registered at Arusha or operating from the city alone, the hub of Tanzania’s multimillion dollar tourism industry.

These include tour operators, travel agencies,hotels, lodges and tented camps, airlines, photographic safari companies, licenced tour guides, conservation agencies and allied institutions.

He said the audit team he heads and which comprised other senior TRA officials would seek to find out why tax revenues from the tourism industry remained low and the challenges facing potential tax payers.

The special audit, which will also extend to Kilimanjaro and Tanga regions, began on Monday with the visit to the head offices of the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (Tato), a powerful lobby group with over 300 members.