Tanzania intends to ground down a number of passenger buses that ply between various mainland regions in the country from the first day of July, 2025 for failure to adhere to some payment system regulations.
The Land Transport Regulatory Authority (LATRA) has just announced that many bus companies in the East African country will soon be doomed for failure to link their respective electronic ticketing systems with the National Electronic Transaction Portal as well as the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) backbone.
In fact, the country’s Land Transport Regulatory Authority had previously made it mandatory for all bus companies in Tanzania to issue electronic tickets to their passengers, replacing the previous paper-based and hand-written boarding passes, a requirement which many bus operators have already complied with.
But now LATRA is back with another tall list, this time the transport regulator demands that all the electronic ticketing systems must be linked and speak the same language with the government’s own electronic system, which is a newly developed portal and launched in July 2023.
The National e-Procurement System of Tanzania (NeST), is the latest electronic system which facilitates e-registration, e-tendering, e-contract management, e-payment, e-catalogue and e-auctioning processes.
Speaking in Morogoro where the institution was conducting a surprise inspection on commuter and up-country buses at Msamvu terminal, the head of LATRA communication and public relations, Salum Pazzy said many operators, described as ‘e-ticketing vendors’ were yet to align their ticketing services with the government’s digital portal.
Due to that therefore, the Land Transport Regulatory Authority has given all bus companies the deadline of June 30, 2025 to accomplish the requirements or risk being taken off the road by the 1st of July 2025.
Apparently, it seems the state collectors want to trace and pinch each and every sent being transacted through bus companies’ e-ticketing systems across the nation.
However, observers warn that the government e-commerce portal is still yet to be perfected and could cause delays and problems that may affect transport services countrywide if it gets forced to accommodate an additional number of vendors and their respective backlogs in the system.