2merkato

The Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority extended the tax deadline for Group ‘C’ taxpayers in Addis Ababa by a week to August 14th.

Group ‘C’ businesses are those businesses which have annual sales less than 100 thousand birr and who are not expected to collect Value Added Tax but pay a gross estimated annual tax amount.  

Meanwhile the deadline Group A taxpayers who are charged with monthly obligations including the collection of VAT on behalf of the tax authority is November 9th and the deadline for Group B businesses is set to the 10th of September.

The Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) announced the finalization of a draft amendment for taxation laws.

The final draft is sent to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) for feedback, according to Mekonnen Ayele, legal advisor with ERCA. The draft amendment bill will amended existing tax proclamation and regulation on various taxes, including Excise Tax, VAT, Turnover Tax, Sur Tax and Income Tax.

The Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority is to introduce a new advanced commodity valuation system which is expected to assist with ensuring a fair customs tax system it was announced at a discussion organized by the authority.

The authority introduced the new web based customs valuation database in exchange for the previous CD based valuation system as of last week.

It is expected that the new software will resolve issues with the previous system and enable the Ethiopian customs valuation system to meet the standards set by the World Trade Organization. The new database was installed by Indian company Center for Development of Advanced Computing.

The Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority is to launch a toll free call center worth 3.4 million birr to be based in the authority’s headquarters.

The call center is expected to transform the process of tax collection and administration. The call center installed by Tanzanian Techno Brian will be able to entertain 30 calls at the same time.

The authority has trained a dozen people, each specializing in specific tax issues to answer inquiries raised by tax payers who call in.

The Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority is to release goods congesting dry ports around the country to importers who provide payment guarantee from their banks to help alleviate congestion.

The Ethiopian Shipping and Logistic Service Enterprise will provisionally cover the demurrage and storage cost estimated at about 400 million birr according to sources.

The authority currently has more than 2 billion birr that it expects to earn from customs tied up in imports stockpiled at the dry ports. The congesting has also been helped by the ELSE’s limited capacity to process the goods and because importers have been unable to meet the financial demands said the sources.