SPREAD FINANCIAL LITERACY FAR AND WIDE FOR GROWTH
It is somewhat consternating that about 50 percent of Tanzanians lack financial literary, despite the crucial role that financial operations do have in national development across the board. This disconcerting financial gap was revealed by the Commissioner for Finance Development in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Dr Charles Mwamwaja.
That was at the time when Dr Mwamwaja was speaking at the Financial Services Week celebrations which began at the Mnazi Moja Grounds in the nation’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam on Tuesday.
Generally speaking, having “financial literacy” gives a person the ability to understand and effectively use various financial skills. These include – but are not limited to – personal financial management (household budgets, credit cards, insurance, etc.), government budgeting, borrowing/lending, mortgages, investing, taxation… The whole gamut of matters financial.
As sages have said down the ages, “financial literacy is the foundation of one’s relationship with money. It is a lifelong journey of learning that leads to an overall sense of financial well-being and self-trust”.
Noting, therefore, that financial literacy is crucial to all-inclusive and meaningful socioeconomic development of a given country on a sustainable basis, Dr Mwamwaja stressed that practical knowledge by the people in general of financial products and services in all their forms is a sure-fire way to go forward and up the ladder of progress.
It is to this noble end that the Tanzania government – working through public and private sector institutions like the Finance ministry and the Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT) – have tirelessly been pushing for increased financial literacy and other factors that are purposefully designed to bolster and otherwise boost national development.
As Dr Mwamwaja says, widespread financial literacy is also a functional incentive for luring prospective investors into the country – as well as an added benefit in the context of international trade and other global interactions. Hence the need for universal financial literacy as a matter of course.
YES, PLUG ALL TAX LOOPHOLES
Participants at a special workshop that was held in the national capital Dodoma recently has called upon the government and other related authorities to plug tax avoidance and evasion loopholes that deny the country considerable public revenues. Drawing participants from an assortment of taxation stakeholders – including trade unions, parliamentarians, researchers and other experts – the forum expressed deep concerns at the vast sums in tax revenues that are lost to the government each year.
The losses are usually the result of some “tax incentives” in the extractives sector – which, according to ActionAid research, cost the country about $531 million annually in lost tax revenues. Other losses are occasioned though malpractices by unscrupulous business operators in such areas as transfer pricing and false invoicing, mostly by a few multinationals of dubious probity.
However, it is difficult under the prevailing circumstances to exactly determine such losses. In any case, the workshop participants called for tax justice by ensuring that all persons and companies who are taxable by law always pay the full tax as and when due.
If nothing else, this is to ensure a sustainable and functioning democracy, through the financing of all-inclusive, appropriate socioeconomic development activities across the board.
