East African Business Week

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA- The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) is set to deal a blow to evaders of  Value Added Tax (VAT).
 The revenue body will  at the same time  increase revenue collection by forcing VAT registered businesses to install Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs).According to TRA's Director for Tax Payer Services and Education, Protas Mmanda, Tanzania has a total of 18,180 VAT registered businesses of which at least 11,465 have already installed EFDs that enable TRA to receive information on sales within 24 hours after entering the sales into the machine. The equipment is claimed to be capable to storing information on transaction for up to 5 years.
TRA will introduce an audit of all VAT registered businesses and at the same time force the remaining 7,000 non-compliant VAT registered business to stop using old machines and employ the new types, the official said.To date there over 23,000 EFDs in the country supplies by four international companies of Datecs Ltd and Incotax Systems Ltd from Bulgaria, and Engineering SPA and RCH-SPA both from Italy.
The TRA, which had set April 12, 2011 as the deadline for installing the EFDs, has noted that many businesses have complied although the exercise to introduce such machines began in July 2010.Companies that will fail to comply with the requirement could face fines or closure of business.  
Although the initial purchase cost is born by businesses, that cost will be deducted from future VAT tax payments. However, TRA hasn't stated how much revenue collection it recover that was otherwise evaded by unscrupulous businesses.