Bravo Magufuli, Tanzanians must pay more taxes!

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Highlights

• Tanzania collects approximately $5.7 billion in taxes per year, compared to Uganda's $6 billion and Kenya's whooping $13.2 billion. This is sufficient to cover only 75% of government expenses, according to the world bank.
• The average Tanzanian pays only $120 in taxes per year, compared to over $300 for the average Kenyan.
• Tanzania's tax to GDP ratio stands at 12%. The East African Monetary Union requires a minimum tax to GDP ratio of 25% for each of its member states.
• Close to 90% of Tanzania's taxes are generated by Dar es Salaam alone, yet the city contributes only 12% of national GDP.
  
• Three sectors; telecommunications, beverages and cigarettes contribute almost half of VAT revenues on domestic transactions.
• Tanzania will have to spend $3 billion annually on roads, electricity and water systems to catch up with the rest of the developing world
• Compared to other developing countries, Tanzania performs poorly in domestic revenue collection. While such comparisons depend on the legal framework in place in each country and the structure of each economy, Tanzania is close to the lowest rank among non-oil producers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This places it in the vicinity of countries with fragile economies, such as Burundi, where capacities have been eroded by years of war and political instability. Tanzania was ranked 148th in PWC’s paying taxes rankings, far below her East African neighbors. The Tanzanian tax system might be the worst of two worlds: on the one hand, taxes are theoretically quite high, which discourages taxpayers from paying. On the other hand, weak collection efforts result in a failure of the State to collect the taxes it needs.