{"title":"Tanzania’s solidarity tax","authors":"Francis Nyonzo","doi":"10.1080/03056244.2022.2138308","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"SUMMARY Financial services are important for development. Most people in developing countries lack access to financial services. The availability of financial services on mobile phones has made these services accessible to people who previously lacked access. Economists have recommended that infrastructure and tax systems be improved in order to enable more people to benefit from mobile financial services. However, in 2021 the Tanzanian government introduced levies on mobile transactions and airtime, which increased the costs of transactions, contrary to the advice of economists. This briefing discusses the taxes on mobile money transactions and their economic legitimacy, considering the fact that the country was not in an emergency and that there are revenue losses.","PeriodicalId":47526,"journal":{"name":"Review of African Political Economy","volume":"49 1","pages":"643 - 651"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Review of African Political Economy","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2022.2138308","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
SUMMARY Financial services are important for development. Most people in developing countries lack access to financial services. The availability of financial services on mobile phones has made these services accessible to people who previously lacked access. Economists have recommended that infrastructure and tax systems be improved in order to enable more people to benefit from mobile financial services. However, in 2021 the Tanzanian government introduced levies on mobile transactions and airtime, which increased the costs of transactions, contrary to the advice of economists. This briefing discusses the taxes on mobile money transactions and their economic legitimacy, considering the fact that the country was not in an emergency and that there are revenue losses.
期刊介绍:
The Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) is a refereed journal committed to encouraging high quality research and fostering excellence in the understanding of African political economy. Published quarterly by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group for the ROAPE international collective it has since 1974 provided radical analysis of trends and issues in Africa. It has paid particular attention to the political economy of inequality, exploitation and oppression, whether driven by global forces or local ones (such as class, race, community and gender), and to materialist interpretations of change in Africa. It has sustained a critical analysis of the nature of power and the state in Africa.