Aggrey Mwanri, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments)

The government has directed councils in the country to list all elders in their respective areas so that they can benefit from free services offered by the government including health.

Aggrey Mwanri, the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments) told the National Assembly here yesterday that the main challenge facing the government in ensuring that the elders enjoy the service was inability to identify them.

He said it is difficult to identify the elders because some potential beneficiaries of such services look old while they have not reached the required age for accessing the services.

Mwanri was responding to a basic question by Eugen Mwaiposa (Ukonga-CCM) who wanted to know whether the government had plans to exempt elders from paying property tax.

Responding, Mwanri said that exemption of property tax to elders was being implemented according to the law.

He said the law on collecting property tax has provisions for exemption of the tax for elders who cannot afford to pay.

Mwanri said elders eligible for property tax relief are those aged above 60 years and should be living in the house entitled to tax exemption and has no income due to a number of reasons including disease.

“Elders who request for tax exemption must write to the village chairman or executive officer of their residential areas and thereafter the local government will write to the municipal director through the ward executive officer,” he elaborated.

The director will visit the respective house and give recommendations to the financial and leadership committee to decide on the particular application, he said.

So far about 24 applications had been submitted and being worked out at Ilala municipality, he added.