Traders who do not have a trade register, tax collectors who misappropriate collected revenues, the nuance of pricing taxes in municipalities for the same taxable products are among the challenges facing certain municipalities in the country. Adequate regulation is necessary.
The electronic declaration and electronic payment system allows taxpayers to make declarations and payments from anywhere, 24 hours a day.
“It is necessary that taxes be the same for the same products or activities in all municipalities, especially for those that are neighboring or close by.” These are the grievances of the inhabitants of Cibitoke province, as indicated by Narcisse Ntihabose, the governor’s advisor in charge of administration and finance. This after noting that taxpayers in certain municipalities in the Cibitoke province do not pay the same amount for the same product.
For Ntihabose, this disrupts municipal revenue collection activities, because taxpayers move towards municipalities that are favorable to them compared to theirs. In this case, the municipality that collects taxes at a high price cannot receive taxes as expected.
In the month of March considered as a “test month for revenue collection” where members of the team from the Ministry of the Interior, Community Development and Public Safety were deployed in all provinces of the country to closely monitor the municipal revenue collection activities, irregularities were noted. These include, among other things, the difference in pricing of taxes in the municipalities for the same taxable products, occupants of stalls in the markets who have difficulty paying the annual tax, traders who do not have a register of commerce, certain tax collectors who misappropriate the collected revenues, insufficient staff for revenue collection, etc.
Taxable products for revenue collection.
According to Ntihabose, the payment of taxes and duties is not an improvisable, it is an obligation provided for by the law governing taxes. By collecting municipal revenue, each municipality organizes itself by establishing forecasts in the annual budget, accompanied by documents detailing the products or activities subject to taxation.
Furthermore, article 5 of the law of March 3, 2016 reforming municipal taxation in Burundi specifies 10 taxable products or activities for revenue collection. These include the tax on large livestock, the tax on the sale of livestock, the slaughter tax, the tax on cycles and mopeds, the land tax, the tax on rental income, the tax on pylons, the flat-rate tax on activities, the tax on industrial crops and the contribution of the value added tax (VAT) to municipal development.
All traders must sign contracts with the OBR
“We have noticed that there are a large number of traders who have kiosks or stands, but who do not have business registers. As a solution, we have already completed the assessment of all these traders. It now remains for these taxpayers to conclude contracts with the Burundian Revenue Office (OBR),” said Mr. Ntihabose.
For him, it is essential to ensure the standardization of tax payments and duties at the provincial and national level. Indeed, people using motorized vehicles such as motorcycles and cars prefer to stay in municipalities where taxes are lower even if their payments come from another municipality. This situation makes it difficult for municipalities to achieve their objectives, particularly with regard to Annual Work Plan and Budget (PTBA) projects, because revenues do not reach the municipal coffers as planned. 50% of the taxes collected go into the municipal fund while the other 50% goes to the OBR, he adds.
For his part, Célestin Nibona Bonansize, assistant to the Minister of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security, during a discussion with the representative of the administrator of the commune of Mugina at the Nyeshenza market noted challenges in collecting taxes, particularly with regard to contracts. According to him, all traders operating in public markets must sign contracts with the OBR to obtain documents justifying their activities.
Gaps are still observed
As indicated by André Ndayambaje, permanent secretary at the Ministry of the Interior, generally speaking, municipalities collect taxes without difficulty and on time despite some collectors who fail to distinguish the different types of taxes to be collected, such as daily, monthly and annual taxes.
However, in the province of Rumonge, we still observe some recalcitrants such as the butchers of the commune of Buyengero who cheat by associating illegally as well as the dockers of the port of Rumonge who have stopped paying contributions alleging that they are no longer in association.
Furthermore, in the province of Karusi, in the commune of Gitaramuka, in a market called Kukabarimyi, the tax collectors thanked the members of the ministry for their frank collaboration. However, they exposed the challenge regarding cooperatives that are late in paying taxes. This leads to speculation on tokens, such as the 150,000 FBu token which could be sold clandestinely at 100,000 FBu.
Online payment, a profitable technology
Since August 2023, a new online tax declaration and payment system has been put in place. This system called electronic declaration and electronic payment is part of the process of digitalization of OBR services. It allows the taxpayer to make declarations and payments from anywhere, 24 hours a day.
The advantages of this system are already palpable. This at a time when the expected tax revenue forecast for the month of September was 172.3 billion FBu and the OBR was able to collect 185.7 billion FBu. In October, revenues were 165.10 billion FBu against 163.33 billion FBu forecast, i.e. a collection rate of 101.08%. This information comes from the OBR’s quarterly information, education and awareness magazine No. 027.
Remember that this system offers multiple advantages which converge towards securing operations and data while retaining the history of declarations and payments and reducing expenses and wasted time. Initially, the target of this new project is made up of large and medium taxpayers, that is to say all taxpayers with an annual turnover of 100 million FBu and more.
#Burundi #Eco #Witness #months #revenue #collection #Gaps #exist
