A new customs bill which amends the existing customs proclamation is to be put before the House of Representatives in 
Ethiopia. The amendment particularly provides incentives for the manufacturing sector and to address problems with the existing practices.
A team of experts with the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority identified flaws in the existing practices including the same procedures being applied for all businesses without allowing for risk assessment, obliging tax payers to make down payments for disputed taxes before appealing to the next level and for making customs clearing procedures as a precondition for releasing goods.
In a bid to address these flaws the new bill has selected sectors on the basis of their strategic significance to the national economy and on the basis of their reliability and tax compliance rate in their customs operations.
Those engaged in the manufacturing sector with a 50% and above production rate for export purposes and those that are producing import substitutes will receive the utmost priority by the new bill. Agriculture ventures which import inputs but export outputs, and Authorized Economic Operators are also beneficiaries of the new customs regulations.The Ministry of Industry will identify the businesses that will be beneficiaries of the customs regulations and ERCA will confirm that the selected businesses are in accord with tax compliance regulations. Companies will be designated green, yellow and red in decreasing order depending on their tax compliance rate and the higher ratings will guarantee simpler clearance procedures at customs.
Source: Addis Fortune
