Southern Africa tax officials meet to consider big business challenge

15 Oct 15

Tax officials from across Southern Africa met in Mauritius last week to discuss how to develop fairer systems to deal with large taxpayers in the region.

At a week-long event organised by AFRITAC South – the International Monetary Fund’s regional technical assistance centre – experts from across the region focused on sharing advice on how they could implement tax administration systems for large businesses in their various countries.

Tax experts came from Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The event was hosted by the African Training Institute (ATI) in Mauritius.

Speaking at the event, Sudhamo Lal, director general of the Mauritius Revenue Authority, said: “The hosting of this workshop comes at an opportune time, especially when tax compliance by large businesses is subject to intense scrutiny.

“It has been the subject of most international tax forums lately and it is even being considered at the highest level in the G20 Forum. Thus, if these large conglomerates don’t pay their fair share of tax it creates a disproportionate impact upon the economy and leaves a significant hole in the revenue collections of government.”

The IMF said if the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were to be achieved developing countries needed to strengthen their tax-collection capacity, broaden their tax bases, and minimise or eliminate tax evasion and avoidance.

  • Judith Ugwumadu
    Judith Ugwumadu

    Judith writes about public finance, public services and economics across Public Finance International and Public Finance. She previously undertook reporting stints at Financial Adviser, Global Security Finance and The Sunday Express.

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