2merkato

Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopia’s flag carrier, made a firm order for five Q400 NextGen Bombardier aircraft confirmed Bombardier Aerospace.

Three of the five airplanes are to be operated by Ethiopian Airlines affiliate ASKY, the Togolese airlines, while the other two will remain with Ethiopian.

According to the list price of the Q400 bombardier aircraft the purchase is estimated at a total of 160 million US dollars.

The tax authority in Ethiopia is maintaining its drive to register businesses for value-added taxation across the country.

In Oromia Regional State businesses are being asked to install cash registers for the first time while regional towns are coming under the scrutiny again.

In Adama, Bishoftu and Duken out of an estimated 1, 151 businesses identified for VAT registration only 28.3% have complied by January of 2012.

The Ethiopian Revenue and Custom Authority allowed 12.3 billion birr in duty free privileges in the last two quarters of the fiscal year in Ethiopia.

The duty privileges amounts to 35.3% of the total revenue raised by the authority in the last six months according to Efrem Mekonnen, Head of the Communications Department with ERCA.

ERCA extends duty free privileges to members of the diplomatic community and investors in pre specified strategic sectors.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Ethiopia earned 60 million US dollars in the first quarter of the current budget year. The authority has signed arrangements with various countries to expand investment in air transport service.

The authority has reached bilateral agreements with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland in just the last two quarters of the current financial year.