Commissioners of tax investigation and enforcement from Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda say information sharing as well as deeper collaboration will be decisive in tackling tax fraud.

They emphasised this, yesterday, at the opening of a two-day session of the sixth East African Regional Meeting for Commissioners of Tax Investigation and Enforcement (EARACTI), in Kigali.

Pascal Ruganintwali Bizimana, Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) commissioner for corporate services, said they will share views on how best they can improve tax compliance in the region.

Bizimana said: "Protection of taxes is key to growing our economies; by mobilising revenues to finance public works and creating fair trade. The evasion of tax distorts market, denies governments of their due tax and is cross border. Thus, fighting the vice yields maximum effect when planned and executed jointly.”

"When we share information and intelligence in real time, we will be more effective in detecting and deterring fraud. Our main objective is to rid the region of tax crimes and achieve higher revenue collection.”

Bizimana said colleagues have already showed a "collective desire” to protect tax by building shared and efficient tools in the investigation and enforcement of tax in the region.

The tax collectors’ last meeting, in November last year in Nairobi, Kenya, established two technical committees; one mandated to  deal with the establishment of a harmonised tax investigators capacity building framework and the other to work out a technical guide on legal and administrative operational framework.

In Nairobi, it was agreed the two committees be hosted and facilitated by Uganda.

The Kigali session is, among others, reviewing and validating these frameworks.

Bizimana said frameworks that harmonise training of regional officers in the investigation and enforcement of tax and operations are vital in protecting tax revenues. One of the key challenges tax authorities face, he said, is under-declaration and under-evaluation of imports by taxpayers, in addition to diversion of goods in transit.

"Our determination to confront this challenge is manifested in this meeting and its agenda, combating tax evasion in cross-border trade,” he said, alluding to Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda’s recent commissioning of the regional electronic cargo tracking system – one initiative to help increase tax compliance while facilitating legitimate trade in the region.

The e-Seal will, according to Bizimana, not only reduce transit times by up to 35 per cent and the cost of managing and administering transit by up to 15 per cent but will also be one of the solutions to fighting smuggling along the transport corridors in the region.

"As we devise mechanism to remove tax evasion we must constantly look for and promote tools that facilitate genuine traders. The RRA is looking forward to continue working with the sister revenue authorities in our region.”

David Yego, the commissioner for tax investigation and enforcement at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), said tax crime is the main enemy in the region as it hampers, among others, the region’s effort to cut dependence on foreign aid.

"Fraudsters are a very big challenge. In Kenya, we have taken to court more than 300 individuals in less than a year. We are seeing progress as people fear being taken to court. With intelligence, things will only get better,” Yego said.

Yego also stressed the importance of ensuring that the tax system in the region is fair since this encourages local and foreign investors and curtails crime because fraudsters know that countries are sharing information and one cannot find a safe haven in the region.

Regional academy

The Kenyan official announced plans to establish a regional academy for tax crime investigation to help countries cut costs by training more east Africans instead of depending on the OECD International Academy for Tax Crime Investigation, based in Italy, which was launched in June 2014.

He did not say when exactly such an academy will be established but noted that it will be "a very big milestone” once achieved.

Evarist Mashiba, the deputy commissioner for tax investigation and enforcement at the Tanzania Revenue Authority, reiterated that countries in the region cannot, at any one time, ably fight tax crime individually.

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