Legal Update – 23 December 2020

BRELA warns uncompliant companies

• Avoid trading with companies not updated at BRELA
• Stresses full compliance under Companies Act

In a bid to ensure compliance among companies registered in Tanzania, and to ensure value addition to the wider economy, Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) has issued a statement that warns Ministries, Government authorities, private and public sectors (entities) not to trade with uncompliant companies.

BRELA requires entities that intend to trade with any company to ensure that such companies have updated their details with the Registrar of Companies in line with the law. It also requires these entities to ask for certificate of incorporation together with annual returns or official search report before entering into contractual transactions.

In its statement, BRELA reminds the public that under section 128 of the Companies Act (the Act) it is a statutory duty for every company incorporated in Tanzania to file their annual returns. Under the Act, the annual returns must be filed together with the annual audited accounts, auditors report and directors report amongst others (click here to read BRELA’s 2017 notice to that effect).

Companies registered as a branch under certificate of compliance are also required to file their audited accounts every year with BRELA in order to comply with the Act.

Under the Act, failure to comply with the provisions of section 128 and 438 is an offence under the law which may lead to a company being struck off the register or its owners and officers being taken to Court or both.

To read the BRELA statement click here.