President John Magufuli has handed over 670,000 special Identity Cards to all Regional Commissioners that will be distributed to petty traders across the country.

He did this early today (Monday) during his meeting with government officials from Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Finance ministry to mention a few at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Center in Dar es Salaam.

President Magufuli ordered that the IDs be sold at Sh 20,000 to the traders whose businesses capital is under 4m/- and directed the collected amount should be taken to TRA by RCs themselves so that more IDs would be produced.

Every RC has walked out with 25,000 IDs with an order that these traders should never be disturbed over paying taxes.

"I'm doing this to eliminate woes that these traders face, in their day to day activities, and from now on, they should live as kings," he added.

Before the exercise, HE Magufuli said Tanzania's tax base is very poor compared to other neighboring countries, including Kenya, adding "It's shame" since only 2.2 million people in the country with population of 55 million people are paying tax.

He advised Taxman to ensure that tax are not too high for traders to pay.