Meeting its target by 99%, the Oromia of Region of Ethiopia collects 9.187 billion birr ($325.8 million) tax in the first six months of Ethiopian Calendar started July 8, 2018.
As compared to last year same period, the tax income has grown by almost 16%, according to the figures NewBusinessEthiopia.com received from Oromia tax office. The total tax collection plan of the Region for the whole year is 18, 508, 884, 969 birr ($656.3 million). This includes 15,000,000,000 ($532 million) from state revenues such as income tax, VAT, and other tax categories and the remaining, 3,508,884,969 birr ($124.5 million) from services of municipalities.
With instabilities in different parts of Oromia Region such as West Wellega, Kellem Wollega, H/G/Wolleggaa, Borena, Gujii and part of East Wollega, East and West Harrges not performing their regular tasks, the over 100% achievement of the target is appreciated I the report of the tax office of the region.
The report of the office has mentioned the following as some the success factors that contributed to over 100% tax earnings target achievement:
• Pre audit assessment conducted just on the spot while taxpayers declare their annual taxes;
• Strategic supervision and support from the head office to the branches;
• Integration with key stakeholder to enforce tax laws;
• Enrolling new taxpayers in the previous years; especially in the campaign of estimation of daily sales 2017;
• Follow up on revenue sharing between the region and the central government;
• Application of necessary software in calculation and assessment of tax mainly category “C”.
At national level, the Ministry of Revenue has recently launched aggressive tax awareness raising campaign in different parts of the country.
At the end of the current fiscal year Ethiopia’s Ministry of Revenue ambitiously targets to collect a total of close to 319 billion birr ($11.3 billion at the current exchange rate).
Last year the country planned to collect a total 201 billion birr (around $8.5 billion at exchange rate of that time), but missed its target by 70 billion birr (around $3 billion at exchange rate of that time).
The national budget of Ethiopia for the current fiscal year is 346.9 billion birr (about $12.3 billion). Meanwhile, the budget document of the country estimates that Ethiopia may collect a total of 254.8 revenue including foreign aid and tax. The budget deficit is expected to be filled by loans.