Judiciary acts on CAG proposals on tax appeal cases

The Judiciary has started implementing recommendations by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG), Professor Mussa Assad, regarding early disposal of tax appeal cases worth over 1.7 trillion/-, pending before tax appeals bodies and the Court of Appeal of Tanzania.

“We have decided to give these cases high priority to speed up their disposal as recommended by the CAG,” the Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Ms Catherine Revocati, told the ‘Daily News’ in Dar es Salaam in a short exclusive interview over the weekend.

She disclosed that in every cause list of cases that would be lined up for hearing, cases involving the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) relating to tax matters would be included without missing. “We want these cases determined the earliest possible,” the Registrar said.

In his annual general report on the financial statements for the year ending June 30, 2014 presented before the National Assembly in Dodoma in May this year, the CAG disclosed that the pending cases were initiated by TRA, while others were filed by other parties against the Authority.

Prof Assad pointed out that the said cases were before Tax Revenue Appeals Tribunal, the Tax Revenue Appeals Board and the Court of Appeal.

According to available procedures, whoever is aggrieved by the assessment made by the TRA on tax is required first to file a complaint before the board, whose chairperson is a senior magistrate.

The decision of the board could be appealed against before the tribunal, whose chairperson is a judge of the High Court or any other person with qualification of being a judge of the High Court.

Thereafter, if a party is not satisfied by the decision of the tribunal the law requires him to take his case to the Court of Appeal where the Chief Justices composes a panel of three justices to determine the appeal.

In his report, the CAG pointed out that during the audit he noted that TRA has long outstanding cases before the appeals tax bodies and the Court of Appeal amounting to 1,716bn/-.

He stated that cases worth 261bn/- were stuck at the Court of Appeal and the remaining balance of cases whose value amounting to 1,455bn/- were before the tax appeals bodies.

Prof Assad pointed out that the potential tied up revenues on appeals is 10 per cent of the total revenue estimates and three per cent of the nominal GDP for the year 2013/2014.

He stated, therefore, that the value of taxes in dispute at the Tax Revenue Appeals Board and the Court of Appeal was high and cost the government resources to run cases for such a long time and, at times, loss of revenue when the appellants become bankrupt before their appeals are resolved.

The CAG, therefore, recommended that hearing of the cases should be expedited by the Court Systems. For a long lasting solution, he has proposed that the government should set up an independent complaint commission to expedite the handling of appeals.

In addition, the CAG recommended that the management of TRA should strengthen and improve the audit and investigation process to reduce tax disputes between the revenue authority and the taxpayers.

Source: Daily News