Govt collected Sh2.5tr in 4-yr mobile phone deals

Dar es Salaam. Fees collected from various transactions through mobile phones reached Sh2.5 trillion during the period between November 2014 and February 2019, a parliamentary committee heard yesterday.

Tracking of the money was made possible due to the Tele-Traffic Management System (TTMS), which was installed in 2013 but became operational in 2014, before President John Magufuli officially launched it in January 2019.

Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) director general James Kilaba told the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the regulator was now able to track financial transactions taking place via mobile phones.

“Before the system, mobile companies were declaring the amounts transacted via their platforms directly to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). There was no way we could prove the numbers and the government ended up losing tax revenues,” he said.

He said the increase in transactions through mobile money such as payment of water, electricity and others have become a major source of income that enables government to increase revenue from the communication sector.

Fraud in the form of unidentified international calls dropped to only 10 per cent as of February 2019 from as high of 65 per cent in 2013, thanks to TTMS. Mr Kilaba said for the past five years revenue collected by service providers from international calls reached Sh348.3 billion. Out of the amount, he explained, the government received Sh95.8 billion.

The rest went to service providers, TCRA payment of contractors and Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (Costech) as well as Treasury.

He added that TTMS had helped the regulator to get various communication statistics, concerning service providers. The regulator will continue to work on other needs that would be raised due to technological changes.

Meanwhile, PAC chairperson Naghenjwa Kaboyoka said the committee visited the office to learn. He said his team was satisfied with how the TTMS controlled the revenue which was lost in the previous years.

“Our visit is to see how the system manage to control revenue we are happy because it’s very transparency and it run by local people,” she said