The Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority collected approximately 71 billion birr in the 2011-12 budget year according to a tentative report released by the authority.

ERCA collected 36.1 million from domestic taxes, 34.5 billion birr from customs and duties and 96.7 million from lotteries noted the report.

The revenue collected by the authority exceeded its performance in the previous financial year by 16 billion birr although it fell short of the 76 billion birr projected for the fiscal year.

The authority was unable to meet its in house projection due to reduced customs revenue from imports with the recent delay in the transport of imported goods caused by the introduction of the multimodal transport system launched by the government.

Another challenge has been with the lower income declaration since January which reduced the domestic tax collected from the projected 40.4 billion.

ERCA is charged with raising 87.1 billion birr in tax and non tax revenue in the new financial to cover 62.2% of the 138 billion birr federal budget for 2012-13.

The problems encountered with the multi modal system and the delays with imports reaching the country will need to be resolved if ERCA is to meet the projected revenues as customs and duties make up a significant portion of the money collected by the authority noted an ERCA official.

Source: Addis Fortune