Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) has announced that from tomorrow onwards, there will be a new system of collecting fees for car fire extinguisher inspection.

An official from the authority said the inspection will cover new and old cars in the country by paying the annual fees.

“When customers pay for TRA annual fee, the amount will include the fee for the Fire and Rescue Unit, therefore only one sticker will be used for both payments,” the authority’s Assistant Inspector Lawrence Kabigi said.

One sticker will now be used for both TRA and Fire Unit, Kabigi told a news conference in Dar es Salaam, adding that the payment period has also changed.

This is because they will now use the current road license, implying that the expiry date of stickers will be similar to that of road license.

Kabigi said now all customers will pay through TRA bank accounts, instead of the current arrangement of making the payment at TRA offices, noting that the aim is to increase efficiency.

TRA Accountant Shwaibu Mahamudu also briefed the media, saying they expect to collect Sh10 billion from the inspection of old and new cars for the 2012/2013 financial year.

“The projected increase is from Sh1.6 billion during 2011/2012, when we had projected to collect Sh2.5 billion but we failed,” the accountant revealed.

For 2012/2013 fiscal year the amount includes the fee for car and building inspection, Shwaibu said.

The Acting Director of Public Security at Fire Unit, Fikiri Sala, said the agreement on fee payment at a single centre between TRA and Fire and Rescue Unit was reached at a meeting on May 30, 2012.

No fire unit officers will stand on the road for stickers inspection from Monday, instead they will inspect the fire extinguishing equipment as opposed to the current arrangement of dealing with stickers, Sala said.

“We will use the 70 per cent of the projected money expected to be collected for the period of 2012/2013 for improving our services” Fikiri said.

He explained that the unit planned to establish two fire and rescue centres annually.” We plan to bring our station close to the people.”

The director said currently there are two fire extinguisher stations in Dar es Salaam built many years ago before the vast expansion of the city.