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Tanzania to Cut Taxes on Mobile Phone Sales
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Tanzania's government has announced plans to reduce the sales tax (VAT) on mobile phones in a move aimed at improving the country's communications sector and the economy.
The Director General of Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA), Prof John Nkoma, told a press conference that "we are planning to reduce taxes on mobile phone handsets and computers to allow the public easily purchase them since the majority relies on their mobile phones and computers to conduct their businesses,"
A report from the GSMA back in 2009 said that mobile subscribers across East Africa are taxed at some of the highest levels world-wide. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania impose mobile-specific taxes which when added to VAT can result in their respective consumers facing taxes as high as 30% in Uganda and Tanzania.
When Kenya removed the 16 percent general sales tax on mobile handsets in 2009, handset purchases increased by more than 200 percent and with mobile operators contributing a third more in taxes in 2011 than in 2009, mobile generated around 8 percent of Kenya's GDP.
The Director General also called on the TV broadcasters to speed up their migration to digital broadcast services - a move which will enable the regulator to resell the digital dividend spectrum to the mobile networks.
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