The use of information technology to improve property tax collection: the case of Dar es Salaam city council

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Date
2005
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
The effectiveness and efficiency of property tax information system is vitally dependent on the availability of data and good management of information related to landed properties. Given the importance of property tax as a potential source of revenue for local government, one would expect the local authorities to have a proper system of assisting the department in managing its day-to-day operations especially handling huge amount of information related to landed properties. However, previous experience has shown that most of local authorities in Tanzania suffer serious problem of poor management of property tax information. The research aimed at examining the underlying problems of property tax information system as a potential revenue source for local government with special focus on level and extent of information technology utilization to enhance local authority financial autonomy. Study results reveal that paper-based tradition way is the most common method used to store data related to landed properties in the most of the local governments. Using information technology to store data is relatively new and little is known about its usefulness to improve organization performance. This has been coursed by many factors including low level of IT knowledge to the staff and reluctance of top management to support IT development. Statistical tests have shown that, the property tax information systems lacked some element of effectiveness, hence it is ineffective. Thus, it was thus recommended that, regular training to staff related to IT is necessary and government should monitor the training institutions offering IT courses.
Description
Available in printed form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF HJ 252.M52M3)
Keywords
Information technology, Planning, Income tax, Information dissemination, Tax collection, Data processing
Citation
Mashaka, M.W (2005) The use of information technology to improve property tax collection: the case of Dar es Salaam city council.Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam.