Breaking: Tax Authority adopts exceptional measures to achieve revenue targets

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Breaking: Tax Authority adopts exceptional measures to achieve revenue targets

8:55 CAT | 23 Oct 2017

Notícias

The Mozambican Tax Authority (AT) will be carrying out exceptional inspections and audits of companies and commercial establishments and on public roads countrywide from today.

The measure is aimed at ensuring that the 186 billion meticais revenue forecast for 2017 is achieved, and is based on the finding that the value added tax (VAT) collected so far this year is much lower than that collected in the same period last year.

The Tax Authority organised a seminar on Friday to standardise procedures and select a group of companies to be audited and monitored, focusing attention on VAT, which represents more than 35 percent of total tax revenue.

At the meeting, AT president Amélia Nakhare said that in a joint effort with the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), significant procedural weaknesses had been detected in the institution’s audit reports.

“The PGR’s feeling is that we have been the results in our reports have not been satisfactory, and there is a great concern about the lack of transparency in the mechanisms in use,” she said.

Amélia Nakhare announced that the Tax Authority also has cases pending with the PGR regarding irregularities detected in the audits carried out so far.

She also said that the AT was concerned about complaints made by taxpayers in relation to lawsuits involving officials negotiated outside the framework of the law. “This is critical. We must adopt a posture that identifies us as state officials. We vowed to serve our country and not ourselves,” she said.

While acknowledging that the institution she leads has limited resources, Nakhare called on staff to find practical, cheap and simple solutions.

“The country is going through a critical period in terms of its ability to finance its expenditure, and this scenario can only be reversed with an efficient tax system – and that system is us,” she said.

In turn, the Director General of Taxes, Augusto Tacarindu, said there was an annual target for each of the taxes, and it was expected that these would be exceeded.

“We verified a need to establish a permanent procedure for AT employees at all levels, whereby each of us must supervise the issuing of the invoice for the taxpayer, and the consumers would demand an invoice or equivalent document as established by the legislation,” he said.

Regarding the involvement of AT employees in bargaining outside standard procedure, the director, without mentioning specific figures, gave an assurance that corrective measures were in place and within the rules established by law.

Source: Notícias