Friends,
It has been a while since I posted anything on this blog - Time has been hard and literally very little time left for myself... I am really sorry for letting you down.
Otherwise, it is budget time in Tanzania (and the rest of east africa for that matter). Did listen to it? have yo read it? If not you may be able to read it here in its entirety
Meanwhile, I took a few minutes connected to the link and glanced on it. Here is a quick review (mainly of importance for individuals - taxes of course):
Exempted:
* All solar powered equipements
* Energy serving bulbs
* Raw materials for paper production
* Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) - gas ya kupikia = exempted from excise duty
* For local arline operators: your Aircraft lease fees (or cost of purchasing an aircraft = exempted from VAT. This + an exempt on VAT for Jet fuel is intended to open the flood gates to more tourisms and to encourage more Int'l flights to stop over in Tz.
* VAT for Petrol - removed BUT Fuel levy up by 10%
Reductions
* Tax relief for Individuals contributing to the Tz education funds
* Interest income withholding for Individuals involved in collective Investment schemes be reduced form 30% to 10%
* Corporates that will list in Dar Stock exchange (with > 35% public ownership) to get their Corporate income tax reduced by 5% from 30 to 25%
* Excise duty for kerosine (mafuta ya taa) reduced by 57% (Tsh70 per litre)
* Import duty for printing raw materials now 10% (down from 25%)
Increases
* Excise "sin tax" for sigara, beer, wine etc Up by 7%
* so is for soft drinks
* Excise tax for plastic bags (the legal ones) up from 15% to 120%
* Excise tax for non-utility vehicles 10 years and older UP by 20%
* Excise duty on mobile phone airtime up from 5% to 7%
* The exempt threshold for PAYE (pay as you earn income tax) increased from Tsh 60,000/= to TSh 80,000
Other highlights:
* Civil Service salaries (teachers, health workers, accountants, internal auditors etc) to increase (watch out for respective ministries budget for a clue on the size of this increase
* Expenditure for infrastructure & economic growth improved from 39% of the MKUKUTA budget to 45.8%
* Expenditure for social welbeing and improvement in quality of life decreased from 43% of MKUKUTA budget to 35.8%
*Expenditure to strengthen governance & accountability increased by 0.4% (from 8% to 8.4%
Again, for more please read the entire Tz national budget speech here
What do you think?
Talk to me (in English or Swahili - what ever you are comfortable with)
Ned
