Withholding tax certificates for employees

I am a Chief Accountant of a manufacturing company which employs more than 200 employees. Last month we had a meeting with employees which was also attended by trade union leaders. One of the agendas addressed was the provision of withholding tax certificates to employees for PAYE deducted from their salaries. The union leader insisted that each employee should get a certificate as it is illegal not to give such certificates. Is it law to give withholding tax certificates to employees for such deductions? 
JK, Dar

A resident employer who makes a payment that is to be included in calculating the chargeable income of an employee from employment is obliged to withhold income tax from the payment at the rate prevailing at the time of making such payment. The employer is duty bound to pay to the Commissioner for Income Tax any income tax withheld from the employees within 7 days after the end of each calendar month. In this sense, an employer acts as a withholding agent of the Tanzania Revenue Authority and the employee is a withholdee.

The Income Tax Act requires a withholding agent to prepare and serve on a withholding tax certificate setting out the amount of payments made to the withholdee and income tax withheld from those payments. For other withholdees, other than employees, a withholding tax certificate should cover a calendar month and has to be served to the withholdee within thirty days after the end of the month.

In respect of PAYE withheld from employees, a withholding certificate covers a calendar year. In that case, the employer is not obliged to issue a certificate for each calendar month, rather has to serve an annual withholding tax certificate by 30 January after the end of the year or, where the employee has ceased employment with the employer during the year, no more than 30 days from the date on which the employment ceased. Thus, the trade union is right to require you to provide withholding certificates to employees as per the above.