REGIONAL officials of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) in Tanga were visibly gratified at the end of the week in reporting a total of 200bn/- in tax collections from July 2024 to January 2025.

This achievement was reported as President Samia Suluhu Hassan wound up a weeklong tour of the region, with the regional manager noting that the collections came to a 76 per cent rise relative to the July 2023 to January 2024 period, when collections stood at 133bn/-.

Even more telling was the confirmation that the seven-month earnings were close to the 204bn/- total TRA collected last year, where the projected total stood at 207bn/-. Why this?

It was explained that the refurbishment of Tanga Port played a pivotal role in elevating revenue gains – from 31.9bn/- in financial year 2017/2018 to 56bn/- in 2020/2021, suggesting that the port’s ability to serve ships and earn revenues kept rising yearly.

Financial year 2021/2022 saw a total of 53bn/- collected, the subsequent corresponding figures being 77bn/- for FY 2022/23 and 70bn/- for FY 2023/24, which implied that the rising tendency was falling off.

However, within seven months of the financial year, from July 2024 to January 2025, a total of 66.3bn/- had been collected. Earlier reports for 2023 showed that TRA had set a 108.68bn/- collection target for July-December but realised 95.51bn/- - that is, 88 per cent of the target.

A similar report says that the Tanga Port has surpassed its revenue collection target for the first quarter of the 2024/25 fiscal year by amassing 18.6bn/- against a set goal of 11bn/-.

This is said to suggest that improvements are faster than anticipated, though there is still a gap between these reported achievements and what the president was told as to the half-year port revenues haul.

Current quarterly collections far exceed annual collections for FY 2019/2020, which represents systemic success in the sense of expanding business at the port either as relates to local industry growth or more significantly with increased use of the port by neighbouring countries.

Apparent high-flung estimates compared to more recent data have to do with efforts to ensure that revenue ceilings are reached. This has at rimes raised complaints from the business sector generally, where the result is to form commissions start with a bang only to end with a whimper.

The country’s investment atmosphere is vigorously touted as among the most encouraging and accommodative. Things should not turn for the worse to the point of any users looking askance at how revenue collectors treat factual agreements.

It would pay for this consideration to be added to the list of issues being discussed as to how the country’s Vision 2050 shapes up: whether key state agencies should be expected to deal honestly with investors, or rather ask them to complain. The answer looks obvious.