According to TRA spokesman Richard Kayombo: "The new Finance Act (of 2016) says that every buyer is supposed to ask for a receipt for every purchase. Failure to ask (for a receipt) is punishable by law and thus from the 1st of July 2016, any shopper may be stopped and asked for a receipt of purchases found in his or her possession."
"Failure to produce a receipt, a fine of not less that 30,000 Tanzanian shillings will be charged or above. This is an ongoing thing everywhere in the country as an enforcement mechanism to compel shoppers to demand for receipts."
As a result, TRA tax inspectors deployed across the country are now randomly stopping people and demanding receipts for any goods found in their possession, with those who can’t produce invoices for their purchases on the spot being slapped with hefty fines.
But Kayombo, who is the TRA director of tax payer services and education, warned members of the public to also demand proper identification documents from anyone telling them to produce a receipt, to verify if they are bona fide representatives of the tax authority.
Explaining further the reasons behind the new TRA move, he said: "We know that enough efforts have been made to push sellers to issue receipts for the products they sell, but there has been some reluctance on the part of buyers to demand these receipts."
There has been a flurry of complaints from consumers in Dar es Salaam since TRA started enforcing the new measures, with some people expressing outrage and fear via the social media.
In one example, on July 18 this year, one city resident was cited in writing by TRA for committing the offence of "failure to demand and retain an EFD (electronic fiscal device) receipt".
On admitting the offence, the said individual was slapped with a fine of 750,000/- by TRA for violating the Tax Administration Act of 2015.
Another city resident who asked not to be named described the decision to fine consumers who don’t ask for receipts as “unfair.”
“People are being harassed by TRA officials to show receipts even if you have bought a loaf of bread from a street vendor who doesn’t issue receipts," he said.
"We support the government's tax collection drive, but I think these new measures of imposing stiff fines on consumers who forget to ask for a receipt or buys goods from a seller who doesn't issue receipts are just going too far," he added.
President John Magufuli's government has been running a relentless crusade against tax dodgers since he took office over eight months ago, with the president himself saying it is aimed at both stamping out tax evasion and raising revenue collection to finance development spending.
The crusade kicked off with the sacking, in November last year, of former TRA commissioner general Rished Bade following a discovery that hundreds of ship containers of imported goods were being smuggled out of the Dar es Salaam port area without the relevant taxes being paid.
According to official reports, the crackdown on tax evasion has since paid dividends with government revenue collection boosted and TRA for the first time succeeding in meeting its targets.
The government this month filed economic crimes charges against five local businessmen who were allegedly involved in an elaborate tax evasion scam that saw over 7 million/- being stolen from TRA per minute through the use of fake receipts and unregistered electronic fiscal devices
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