The Executive Director of Kepa, a Finnish NGO network, Timo Lappalainen (left) and Communications Officer Mirka Kartano (first right) with Policy Forum Coordinator, Semkae Kilonzo (second left) and Kepa Tanzania Country Director, Bakar Khamis Bakar (second right).
Although Tanzania is now acknowledged as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, this progress has not translated to major changes in the lives of ordinary Tanzanians. The reasons for this are many but tax incentives, tax evasion and avoidance and illicit capital flows to tax havens have been pinpointed as some of the factors that limit the country from raising adequate funds to improve service delivery.
People living in extreme poverty hesitate to pay taxes for their development because they think that the government fails to fulfil its responsibility of solving their development challenges. The challenges include poor infrastructure, lack of medical care in the village dispensaries, poor education system and lack of clean water. That is said today in Dodoma by Hon. Mendrad Kigola (MP) during the follow-up meeting of the stop the bleeding campaign coordinated by Policy Forum (PF) in collaboration with Tanzania Tax Justice Coalition (TTJC).
The Policy Forum monthly breakfast debate on September 29th, 2017 dedicated to discussing the Concealed Opportunities of the Informal sector in Tanzania. The debate entitled “The Power of Tanzania’s Informal Economy: Unveiling the Concealed Opportunities”, was presented by William Madiwa from Tanzania Trade and Economic Justice (TTEJF).
In 2016, Policy Forum (PF) in collaboration with Tanzania Tax Justice Coalition (TTJC) organized the launch of the Stop The Bleeding (STB) campaign aimed to trigger informed actions and enhance political will to put in place interventions that will reduce and eventually stop acts that lead to loss and flight of public resources from the country. The campaign took place in Dodoma and comprised of members of the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (APNAC) and other stakeholders.
Tax avoidance is one of the biggest economic issues of our time. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF), developing countries currently lose $ 100- $ 300 billion of tax revenue through tax avoidance. One among many reasons for such a problem is inefficient taxation of extractive activities and the inability to fight abuses of transfer pricing by multinational enterprises. This was said in Dar es Salaam in the last breakfast debate of Policy Forum (PF) slated for November 25, 2016.
Tanzania Tax Justice Coalition is a loose coalition of NGOs interested in tax justice. The group was started in 2013 under Policy Forum. The group comprises of Policy Forum, Action Aid Tanzania, Kepa, Youth Partnership Countrywide (YPC), Tanzania Coalition on Debt and Development (TCDD), Tanzania Trade and Economic Justice Forum (TTEJF), Tanzania Youth Vision Association (TYVA), Governance and Economic Policy Centre, Tanzania Education Network (TenMet) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA).
New commitments on financing for development are being negotiated in July in Addis Ababa at the Third Financing for Development Conference (FfD3). Tax and domestic resource mobilization have been placed in a central role in the negotiations. In order to increase domestic revenue, illicit financial flows and harmful tax practices have to be tackled.
Africa loses a big chunk of money as a result of illicit financial flows (IFFs). Different studies have indicated that these IFFs are responsible for draining the African continent of resources for development and are detrimental to revenue mobilization efforts. For example the recent report by the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows (AU/ECA HLP) from Africa, show that the continent loses more than $50 billion annually through IFFs.
Recently the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a US-based watchdog released a report with data on monies wired to the HSBC Bank in Switzerland (one of the world’s largest banks) including by people associated or connected to Tanzania. About a hundred people wired $ 114 million (equivalent to 205 billion Tanzanian shillings) for year 2006/07.