The Ministry of Revenue of Ethiopia has collected a total tax of 147.3 billion Birr during the first five months the current budget year of the country started July 8, 2021.
This is indicated by the Ministry of revenue of Ethiopia, which indicated that it has achieved 92.6 percent of its target for the period. Communications head at the Ministry Umi Abajemal indicated that the performance is encouraging in the face of COVID-19 and ongoing war in the northern part of the country that affected the tax collection of the Ministry.
She noted that even though the Ministry was has set a target to collect 1.8 billion Birr at Mekele customs and revenue branch in Tigray region, it couldn’t be able to collect a penny because of the war.
In addition, in Kombolcha branch of Amhara region the ministry only collected 1.9 billion Birr even though the target was 2.3 billion Birr. Because of the war the branch of the Ministry in Kombolcha town is destroyed by the terrorist group (Tigray Peoples Liberation Front – TPLF), according to Umi.
Of the total 147.3 billion Birr collected during the first five months, 70 billion Birr was collected in October and November, according to the information from the Ministry of Finance, which evaluated the last 100 days performance of the Ministry over the weekend.
At the end of the year the Ministry aims to collect a total of 360 billion Birr. The previous budget year concluded July 7, 2020; the Government of Ethiopia has collected a total of 233.7 billion Birr tax revenue.
It is recalled that for the current budget year Ethiopian Parliament has approved a total budget of 561.7 billion Birr. Furthermore, following the destructions caused by the war, a few days ago the Ministry of Finance has also proposed 22 billion Birr additional budget recently.
For the past years, Ethiopia has been filling its budget deficits by offering treasury bills for local banks and finances from multilateral and bilateral lenders and donors.
The Communications director of the Ministry expressed her hope that the Ministry will be able to achieve it annual target by working hard. She also urged the tax payers of the country to continue their compliance by paying their taxes on time.
In a related development, Amhara region of Ethiopia’s tax office indicated that it is planning to collect a total of 80 billion Birr from taxes at the end of the current budget year.
This is indicated today during a workshop that discussed a new roadmap that aims to improve and modernize tax collection of the region. The event is organized by Tax office Amhara region and Bahir Dar University, which presented the draft roadmap.