Mozambique: State needs effective tax collection, warns Chapo – Watch

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Mozambique: State needs effective tax collection, warns Chapo – Watch

5:14 CAT | 22 May 2025

Screen grab: STV

No State can survive without the effective collection and prudent management of revenue, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo warned on Thursday.

At the end of a visit to the premises of the Finance Ministry and of the Mozambican Tax Authority (AT), Chapo said “We are living in demanding times. The world is undergoing accelerated change and Mozambique is not immune to domestic and external shocks. We are facing an adverse macro-economic conjuncture which puts to the test our capacity to plan, manage and innovate”.

The future, Chapo stressed, is digital. Some countries have done away with paper transactions, and that was the path that Mozambique too should follow. “That’s the best way we can find to manage the State with transparency, and without corruption”, he said. “I want to tell you all that we must have this capacity”.

O presidente da República exortou a Autoridade Tributária a ter sensibilidade para efectuar o pagamento das dívidas aos fornecedores, para restaurar a confiança no Estado. #danielchapo #at #mocambique #stvnoticias #gruposoico
Veja com mias detalhes na https://t.co/3GxkwFtECZ pic.twitter.com/dVSRaMGk29

— stvnoticias (@stvnoticias_mz) May 22, 2025

He accepted that this was difficult because of such factors as the wars between Israel and Palestine, and Russia against Ukraine, and the terrorist raids in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.

Faced with these challenges, “it is important that we re-invent ourselves so that the country can continue to move forward”, said Chapo. “But it is also at these times that true leaders and public servants are revealed”.

He described the Finance Ministry as “the beating heart of governance”, which is directed “towards laying the foundations for our economic independence. Here the great development strategies are drawn up, and here the destination of our resources is decided”.

To implement the government’s plan and budget for the next five years, “we need your commitment”, he told the Ministry and AT staff. “Your competence will be decisive for guaranteeing efficient revenue collection, and transparent execution of public expenditure”.

Chapo urged the Ministry staff “not to create red tape that slows down the availability of the resources the people need”.

The government, he said, has begun paying the debt owed to education and health professionals for overtime worked but not yet paid. “Our greater challenge is to prevent these debts from accumulating again”, he stressed.

It was the same with debts owed to the companies that provided the State with goods and services. It was “a question of public ethics” to recognise what we owe to the suppliers and that “they need these resources, if they are to continue providing goods and services to the Mozambican state”.

Finance staff, said Chapo, “are on the front line in defending the citizenship and dignity of Mozambicans. Every metical collected is a right that is achieved. But every metical lost to tax evasion, to fraud, or to undue privilege, is a right denied to each Mozambican”.

“Our task is to serve the public. It is not to serve ourselves”, the President declared.

“The State does not survive just on good intentions”, he added. “It survives on resources. Without teachers paid, there are no schools. Without fuel for patrol vehicles, there is no security. Without vaccines for our nurses, and without doctors, there is no care for the public”.

Tax collection was thus the basis on which the country functions. “Collecting revenue is not just a technical function”, said Chapo. “It is a noble mission in defence of the common good. Your work should be recognised as strategic, essential and dignifying”.

The idea that taxation “is a necessary evil” could not be accepted, he continued. “The true evil is a State that is not capable of complying with its tasks as laid down in the Constitution. The evil is tax evasion and unjustified privilege”.

“The problem does not lie in collecting revenue, but in not collecting enough revenue to meet the social and economic role of the State”, Chapo declared.

This meant rooting out vested interests. “We need courage to face the private interests installed in the Mozambican state”, he said. “We need intelligence and innovation to combat tax evasion. We need to regard revenue collection as a pillar of the rule of law. Where there is tax justice, there is social justice”.

“The State needs revenue”, Chapo stressed, “not for itself, but to better serve its people. Where the State fails, social inequality grows. And where there is inequality, there is no safe future”.

Source: AIM