The Ministry of Revenues of Ethiopia says the country’s annual tax income for the Ethiopian fiscal year ended July 7, 2026 has increased by about 68.7 percent as compared to the previous year.
During performance review meeting the Minister of Revenues Aynalem Niguse announced that the institutions collected 780.4 billion birr from domestic taxes and 738.2 billion birr from foreign trade duties and taxes, totaling 1.518 trillion birr, thereby achieving 101.24% of the target.
She noted that compared with the performance of the 2017 fiscal year, this achievement represents an increase of 618.39 billion birr, or 68.69% growth. She made the remark at the meeting of the Ministry of Revenues and the Ethiopian Customs Commission in Bishoftu City, which is evaluating the implementation of last year plan.
Opening the forum, Minister Aynalem Niguse stated that Ethiopia is currently undertaking a comprehensive macroeconomic reform program. She explained that one of the key agendas of the economic reform is strengthening the country’s domestic revenue mobilization capacity.
She said that the implementation of the Medium-Term Revenue Strategy, which began in the 2017 fiscal year to realize this reform agenda, has produced encouraging results by helping Ethiopia’s tax revenue-to-GDP ratio move away from its previous downward trend and begin showing improvement.
The Minister recalled that at the beginning of the 2018 fiscal year, the plan was to collect 1.28 trillion birr from domestic taxes and export trade duties and taxes. However, following the strong performance achieved during the first half of the fiscal year, the target was revised upward to 1.50 trillion birr.
She stated that in order to achieve the annual revenue target of 2.083 trillion birr set for this fiscal year, both institutions must focus on major areas including customer-oriented service delivery, institutional capacity building, improving good governance, enhancing human resource capacity, strengthening tax compliance and law enforcement capabilities, implementing the receipt lottery system, encouraging citizens to develop a culture of requesting receipts, reducing informal economic activities, expanding the tax base, and strengthening effective anti-smuggling controls.
In conclusion, she expressed appreciation to taxpayers who fulfilled their obligations and contributed to the successful completion of the 2018 fiscal year, as well as to the leaders and employees of the Ministry of Revenues and the Ethiopian Customs Commission, and security and law enforcement bodies for their support.
Commissioner of the Ethiopian Customs Commission, Dr. Debele Kabeta, said that the forum would serve as an opportunity to exchange experiences and discuss the strong performances achieved during the 2018 fiscal year, while also identifying solutions to address existing challenges.
The forum was attended by State Ministers of the Ministry of Revenues, Deputy Commissioners of the Ethiopian Customs Commission, senior officials from both institutions, as well as Abagadas and Hada Sinqees.
