Private school owners criticise TRA

Dodoma. The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has been criticised for blatantly disregarding laws.

The Tanzania Association of Managers and Owners of Non-Government Schools and Colleges (Tamongsco) claims that TRA has been taxing schools and colleges the corporation tax, value-added tax and local government tax which are exempted by the law.

The private school owners and managers travelled to Dodoma to meet a parliamentary committee on budget reform, just a day before the ministry of Education and Vocational Training presented its budget for 2014/15.

The ministry presented its financial estimates yesterday. Presenting their proposals before the committee, among other issues, Tamongsco called on the government to waive the Skills and Development Levy (SDL) and work permit fees.

SDL was introduced in 1994 by the Vocational Education and Training (Veta) Act but was later cancelled in a bid to ensure that more students accessed education. But it was reinstated in 2013/14 financial year.

Tamongsco secretary general Benjamin Nkonya told The Citizen that the taxation regime was discriminating against non-government education providers.

He said Tamongsco wanted the tax to be waived.

At the parliamentary committee, Tamongsco charged that SDL prohibits the employment of additional teachers to meet the expanding enrollment needs. Moreover, the unfriendly taxation regime increases the cost of education.

According to the East African Facts and Figures for 2012, Tanzania has the lowest in primary and secondary enrollment rates compared with Kenya and Uganda.

According to Tamongsco head in Dar es Salaam Region, Dr Jasson Ishengoma, many parents opted to take their children abroad due to the poor quality of education in public schools. Tamongsco also asked the parliamentary committee led by Mr Andew Chenge to waive work permit fees so as to have more teachers from outside the country to address the severe scarcity of teachers.

In Tanzania, training a teacher from nursery to university costs Sh100 million. The country has a shortage of 26,000 teachers, according to the ministry of Education and Vocational Training.

According to Mr Nkonya, this is a stumbling block towards education transformation in Tanzania.

Currently, the government charges $2,500 (about Sh4 million) per teacher recruited from EAC partner states. Kenya has waived work permit fees for Tanzanian nationals.