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Assessment of the Impact of Institutional Reforms on Mobilization of Property Tax Revenue

Property taxation in Tanzania is one among sources that the government can potentially and largely use to widen its tax base and increase revenue collection. Being directly visible to taxpayers, by design it is relatively easier from the taxpayers’ perspective to easily link the collected revenue to improved provision of local services. Thus, property tax has a prospective to act as a basis for bargaining between taxpayers and governments over revenue collection and public spending, hence increasing the tax compliance rate. The institutional reforms of property tax have come in different forms and have been accepted with different views and perceptions. In addition to rationalizing central-local fiscal relations, the government has been placing attention on improving its financial management and revenue mobilization efforts. However, the implications of such reforms on anticipated benefits including increased property tax revenue collection and other forms of taxes have remained empirically unknown. This study seeks to examine the institutional processes for managing property tax reforms in the complex revenue policy network in Tanzania.