Magufuli stresses importance of paying tax, hits out at ‘liars’

Singida. The ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) presidential candidate, Dr John Pombe Magufuli, yesterday stressed the importance of paying taxes, and criticised those promising to scrap them.

Dr Magufuli, who was addressing a rally at Bombardier grounds in Singida, said if re-elected in the October vote, he will continue with tax collections especially from large traders to sustain development. but will remove charges which are unnecessary.

“There are people who will promise you that they will not charge taxes, but those are lies. How do you run the government or finance development activities without collecting taxes? Let me tell you the truth that paying taxes is important and has been there since the age of prophets,” he said.

“What we do is to remove some nuisance taxes on common people. That is why in the last five years we managed to scrap 114 charges on farmers and some 54 charges on traders. However, large traders must continue paying taxes to support the welfare of poor people,” he said stressing the importance of paying taxes.

“We love traders and that is why we scrapped unnecessary taxes but let us keep paying taxes,” he said.

One of the achievements of the fifth phase government under him is the increase of tax revenue collections from Sh850 billion per month in 2015 to an average of Sh1.5 trillion per month currently.

In December last year, the revenue jumped to Sh1.9 trillion.

Some other promises included full electrification in the next five years.

“We have remained with just about 2,600 villages which are not connected to electricity but I’m sure we will complete them in the coming five years if you vote for me. If we managed to connect 9,570 villages in the last five years, the remaining number is very little,” he said.

CCM launched its campaign and manifesto on Saturday in Dodoma but the party’s presidential candidate started his rallies yesterday.

The first rally was held at Bahi where he asked for votes promising more water projects and electricity connection to villages.

According to him, in 2015 there were only four villages with electricity in Bahi and 43 more have been connected in the last five years.

Dr Magufuli also expressed his satisfaction with the current economic growth and peace and unity the country is enjoying, promising to maintain them.

Dr Magufuli held other rallies at Manyoni and Ikungi before moving to Singida. On Wednesday, he will continue to Iramba, Nzega and Shinyanga.