The Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority is to introduce what is known as a ‘customer charter’ designed to ensure better services for taxpayers.

The charter introduced by the authority at a discussion with taxpayers and other stakeholders at the Addis Ababa, Ghion Hotel details 28 major services and specifies time frames for service delivery.

Some of the services detailed and the time frame allotted to them include tax payer registration expected to take no more than 10 to 30 minutes, closing a business should take no more than 30 minutes, help with operating a cash register machine, 5 to 20 minutes, duty free privilege service no more than 2 days and clearance services 30 minutes according to the charter. The charter also mandates that tax complaints are to be processed in no more than five days and customer related complaints will be serviced within seven days.

Representatives of the business community who attended the discussion appreciated the gesture but remained unconvinced of its actual feasibility according to sources.

The charter is expected to govern both the authority and taxpayers and is expected to improve the current poor service delivery system it was said at the time.

Source: The Reporter