The Ethiopian Sugar Corporation announced that a new national sugar policy is being prepared. The new policy will set the direction for import, export and consumption of sugar in the country, the corporation disclosed.
The Ethiopian Sugar Industry Group announced its commitment to completely replacing the country's sugar demand with domestic production within the next five years by scaling up sugar production from the current 3.6 million quintals to 13 million.
The Ethiopian Sugar Corporation announced plans to raise national sugar production from 300 thousand to 2.25 million tonnes annually. The corporation has begun extensive efforts towards increased sugar production according to Yilma Tibebu Corporation Public Head.
Expansion projects have begun at Metehara, Wonji Shoa, Methera sugar factories to increase sugar production according to Yilma. The increase in production hopes to meet demands for sugar in the local market as well increasing exports to the global market.
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 Revenues and Customs Authority collected 22.26 billion birr in revenue in the first quarter of the current financial year it announced.
The revenue raised by the authority was 103.57% of the21.49 billion birr it had projected for the fiscal period explained Ephraim Mekonnen, Head of the Public Relations Department of ERCA.
The performance registered by the authority over this period was 6.2 billion birr more than the amount it had collected during the same period in the previous financial year explained Ephraim.
A significant percentage of the authority’s income was raised from indirect taxes such as the Value Added Tax, Excise Tax and Turnover Tax which together raised 16.13 billion birr making up 72.47% of the total revenue collected by the authority over the quarter.
