Browsing by Author "Shao, Paul E."

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Development of electronic fiscal device stock tracking module to monitor tax evasion in Tanzania
(NM-AIST, 2020-03) Shao, Paul E.
The Electronic Fiscal Device (EFD) Machines have been operating in Tanzania since the year 2010 for the purpose of helping the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) to increase revenues from tax collection. Regardless of years of its existence, there are still reported cases of tax evasion and this study was conducted to review the current tax collection system and analyze requirements for the development of Stock Tracking Module (STM) to be embedded in the current tax collection system. Data collection was done in Kilimanjaro and Arusha the two regions of Tanzania involving tax officers and Information Technology (IT) personnel from TRA regional offices. This study opted pharmaceutical business as case study due to its sensitivity to human health and the fact that, its regulatory authority’s database can be linked with the developed system to track expired and fake drugs in the market. Data collection process involved quantitative and qualitative methods to gather information for the development of the system’s Stock Tracking Module (STM) such as interview, questionnaire, role-playing and observation. The study earmarked some problems relating to Electronic Fiscal Device Machine Management System (EFDMS) and EFD machine. The major problems encountered by TRA are; under declaration of sales by traders, non-usage of EFD machines, usage of fake EFD, overestimate of expenses, division of business and conducting business in unknown areas. The main outcomes of the study: The efficiency of the EFDMS was at average, thus, needed some improvements. Therefore, this study developed an enhanced EFD system by introducing stock tracking capabilities to monitor traders’ actions that translate to tax evasion in such ways as; underpricing of sales value, avoid using the EFD machine and use of fake EFD system which consequently increase government revenues.
The Implementation of an Enhanced EFD System with an Embedded Tax Evasion Detection Features: A Case of Tanzania
(Modestum, 2020-03-06) Shao, Paul E.; Dida, Mussa
This paper aims at presenting the development of an enhanced Information and Communication Technology tax collection system that in some countries is referred to as Electronic Cash Register while in Tanzania is popularly known as the Electronic Fiscal Device Machine (EFD Machines). In Tanzania, the system was nurtured in 2010 to address the issue of tax evasion and improving revenue collection. Since then it has been used by business entities to print fiscal receipt/invoice and transmit accounting information to Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) online system where the revenues raised from the tax were much increased. Regardless of the increase in revenues collection, still, EFD machines and its management system face several challenges concerning tax evasion which are frequently reported by government authorities. The major drawbacks observed from the current system by this study are; under-declaration of sales value, avoid EFD machine usage, the use of fake EFD system, division of business and conducting business in unknown areas without being detected by the EFD system. Therefore this paper presents the development of an improved EFD system that addresses the stipulated drawbacks with pharmaceutical business picked as a case study. The current EFD system weaknesses were fixed by embedding stock tracking and commodity cap-pricing features in the developed system. While developing the system, this study assumed evolutionary prototyping as a system development methodology to develop both EFD machine application software and EFD Management System. The major advances of the new system are its ability to detect; under-priced transactions, avoidance of EFD machine use, and use of fake EFD machines. Thus, stock tracking and cap-pricing capabilities incorporated in the developed system will enable TRA to detect tax evaders and therefore improve revenue collection across the country.