East African Business Week

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA-The endorsing of the $149 million National Identification Cards (IDS) may come as a blessing in disguise to the country's tax collector.
Presenting a paper on the overview of Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) performance and future prospects during a recent seminar on tax to Members of the Parliament, the TRA's Deputy Commissioner General, Mr. Placidus Luoga said "the absence of bio-data (IDs) to identify specific taxpayers complicates tax administration enforcement measures," he said.
Mr. Luoga told Members of Parliament in Dar es Salaam that lack of the National Identity Cards (IDs) was denying the country huge amounts of tax and revenue collections.
TRA could not achieve its revenue target for the first time in more than a decade at 90 per cent and 91% during 2008/09 and 2009/10.
Last week TRA's Commissioner General Harry Kitillya told this paper in this year' Financial Year 2011/2012, TRA is supposed to raise a tune of Tsh 6.2 trillion ($375billion)
The Government of Tanzania has now contracted Iris Corp Bhd a Malaysian company to produce about 25 million national identity cards for bona fide citizens.
In the five year project the Government of Tanzania expects to spend $149 million (Tsh 200b) to produce the 25 million cards, which have been lacking since independence.
The amount will involve the procurement, supply, design, implementation, test, maintenance, support and commissioning of the national ID system based on modern smartcard technology.
This move has come about after a delegation of Members of Parliament who had gone to Malaysia to learn how the Malaysian Home Affairs Ministry manages the identification process and the legibility and capacity of Iris Corp Bhd., a Malaysian company that was picked earlier this year to produce the IDS after winning the tender to execute the project.
The Chairperson of the Tanzanian delegation to Malaysia, Ms Anna Abdallah said that "after undertaking thorough due diligence we found that the company had the capacity and competence to execute the project."
Embattled Maswa MP on an opposition party CHADEMA ticket, Mr. John Shibuda, who was among the delegation that went to Malaysia, commended the competence of the company to accomplish the project.
Mr. Shibuda said that according to findings out of over forty million Tanzanians, only two million people pay tax due to lack of National Identification.
The Maswa MP said that: "If this project will be implemented, it will contribute to growth, possibly increase the tax base to at least more than ten million tax payers."
The Executive Director for National Identification Authority (NIDA), Mr. Dickson Maimu was recently quoted saying that in a period of five years, 25 million national identity cards will be produced for bona fide citizens.
"A few months ago, the Ministry for Home Affairs announced the six companies which included Unisy, Giesecke & Dervient, Iris Corporation and Madras Security Printers; two consortiums included Marubeni Corporation in partnership with Zetas and NEC as well as Tata Consultancy Service in corroboration with On Track Innovations to vie for the project." Mr. Maimu said.
The Malaysian firm was picked out of six firms after demonstration of its capacity to produce the IDs in a multifunctional- Smart Card technology.
"We were impressed by the capacity of the firm to produce the cards through smart card technology. And it should be known that Malaysia is the first country in the world to produce and use the Smart card-national identity cards and it's the same firm that we have picket to produce our cards," he said.