Public Participation in Financing Local Development: The Case of Tanzanian Development Levy

This article examines local government taxes in Tanzania, particularly the local rate, known as ‘development levy’ in Tanzania, and elsewhere more commonly as poll tax. It first discusses the charging of local rates to finance the colonial administration and the Municipalities Ordinance 1946, which empowered the colonial local authorities to collect taxes for their own use. Local rates were abolished in 1969 and local authorities in 1972. Next the author looks at the reintroduction of local authorities and local rates in 1982. The poll tax or personal tax was also reintroduced, but in the disguised form of ‘development levy’. The author reviews the various criticisms of the levy and the problems involved in its imposition, paying attention to the compilation of tax registers, the setting of development levy amounts in different local authorities, and the collection of the taxes. Ann., bibliogr., notes, sum. in French.