Tax agency doubles new employee training period.

Tax agency doubles new employee training period.

Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA)

 New employees for the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) will now have to undergo a six months training before officially commencing work instead of the previous three months, the authority has announced.

 

The authority contends that, the three months were insufficient to self-appropriate all the material acquired from the training. 

 

Speaking yesterday in Dar es Salaam when launching the six month pre-service graduate training programme for 150 TRA employees from the Institute of Tax Administration (ITA), TRA Commissioner General, Rished Bade, said the training  aimed at addressing corruption within the authority.

 

He said it is designed to equip the new employees with knowledge on how to collect more revenues and to better handle ethical matters.

 

Commissioner Bade emphasised that collecting the country’s revenue is a huge task that needs people who are competitive and ethical.   “Such trainings are of vital importance to our employees as they get knowledge on the best way to collect taxes and stick to the job’s ethics,” he stressed and cited that people engage in corrupt practices due to lack of knowledge of their job ethics.

 

He pointed out that the authority pays its employees a ‘nice package’ to prevent them from such practices but they still indulge in corrupt practices; “some employees are corrupt due to low salaries but in case of the tax collection body, the issue is different,” he said.

 

He called on the trainees to stick to the training and ensure they practice what they have learnt when they officially start serving the public.

 

On his part, ITA Rector, Prof Isaya Jairo said the training is of very crucial importance to TRA’s employees as most of them lack the required skills; “After the training they will have enough knowledge on the best ways of revenue collecting and what to avoid at work,” he said.