Lindi — The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) in Lindi Region has collected more than Sh536 million in revenue between July 2010 and June this year.The revenue collection is an increase of 5.1 per cent for the 2009/2010 collections, according to the TRA Lindi regional manager, Mr Wallace Mnkande.

However, Mr Mnkande said despite the increase in the number of taxpayers in the region, the collections were far behind the regional target of 100 per cent.

The number of businessmen paying taxes in Lindi has increased from 1,981 in 2002 to 6,158 this year. He said the increase in the number of businessmen paying taxes was in tandem with the increase of companies paying taxes from 16 in 2010 to 50 firms this year.

Mr Mnkande said efforts were in place to create a conducive business environment in order to attract more investors to pay taxes without delay.He was speaking at the climax of celebrations marking the Taxpayer's Day aimed at educating the business community on the importance of paying taxes.

He said TRA was also at the forefront of implementing corporate social responsibility, indicating that the authority has donated 66 bags of sugar worth Sh3.9 million to public and religious charity organisations.