Tax evasions hurt revenue collection

THE commissioner general Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) Mary Baine said Rwandans hate paying taxes thus limiting revenue collection in the country. “Most of the potential taxpayers evade paying taxes not knowing the importance of revenue to nation building,” Baine said. She was briefing parliamentarians on how the Authority (RRA) will utilise the money allocated to the tax body in the 2008 Budget on Wednesday. She cited dealers in agricultural and building materials as leading in tax evasions. But the commissioner general promised to utilise part of the money to step up the crackdown on tax evasion in the country. The move is to boost revenue collection in order to fund the 2008 Budget. “We are to inject in money to boost the enforcement unit to ensure that no one evade taxes”, she said. Though thin on group and facing logistical and capacity problems, RRA managed to collect Frw124.6 billion against the Frw109 billion in 2007. She was however quick to say that the authority is to assist taxpayers in understanding and meeting their tax obligations.RRA plans to widen the tax-base totaling to 25,000 tax payers from between 18,000-19,000. “We need to see how the medium taxpayers can be assisted to develop and elevate to another level and the ministry of Local Government is assisting in the process” Baine said. RRA was established as part of the reform programme by the Government designed to restore and strengthen the main economic institutions of the country. Ends