Suspected conman not one of us: Taxman
TRA Taxpayer Services and Education director Richard Kayombo
What you need to know:
- TRA taxpayer services and education acting director Richard Kayombo told press conference yesterday that the earlier inspections by the authority show that Mr Mrugulu who resides at Toangoma in Dar es Salaam is the conman, not TRA’s member
Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) said yesterday that the man arrested for suspicions of engaging in conmanship was not their worker.
A video clip went viral yesterday showing a man who had been arrested for posing as a worker of TRA.
TRA Taxpayer Services and Education director Richard Kayombo told a press conference yesterday that initial investigations by the authority revealed that the suspect, who resides at Toangoma in Dar es Salaam, was a conman and not a TRA worker.
“We don’t have his name on our list. Further investigations are underway to establish where he got his fake TRA identity card,” he said.
The circulating video clip shows the suspect being arrested and taken to a police station (not mentioned), where he was accused of collecting taxes from businesspersons in the Temeke Tax Region, carrying TRA’s identity card badge.
“Forgive me please, I will not do it again. We are all men! Rescue me from this shame,” the suspect is heard pleading with the police in the video clip.
According to Mr Kayombo, the suspect will questioned further to establish whether he worked as an individual or was part of a network of conmen.
“People must be aware that TRA does not take cash when collecting taxes. It must be through banks or mobile money transactions. If anyone is forcing you to pay in cash, then report him or her to our offices,” he said.
So far, according to him, TRA is trying to figure out the number of people and the total amount of money that Mr Mrugulu has conned.
“We will circulate the video and pictures of the fraudster to inform people who were conned to report at the Temeke TRA branch,” he said.
This is not happening for the first time, according to Mr Kayombo, but it has been difficult to arrest the culprits.
“We normally receive same cases but they come too late that the culprit is already dismissed at the area. Though I have no clear data at hand, but we get many cases from Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Arusha and Dodoma cities,” he said.
