OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2015. AFRITAC South organized a seminar that brought together senior Tax Administration Officials in charge of designing, leading, and implementing tax administration systems for large taxpayers from Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The event was hosted by the African Training Institute (ATI) in Mauritius.

“The hosting of this workshop comes at an opportune time, especially when tax compliance by large businesses is subject to intense scrutiny”, Mr. Sudhamo Lal, Director General of the Mauritius Revenue Authority, stated at the opening ceremony. “It has been the subject of most international tax forums lately and it is even being considered at the highest level in the G-20 Forum. Thus, if these large conglomerates don’t pay their fair share of tax it creates a disproportionate impact upon the economy and leaves a significant hole in the revenue collections of government”, he added.

After the United Nations Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa, it is now widely expected that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require the realization of the full potential of developing countries by ensuring improved domestic resource mobilization through fairer tax systems that minimize or eliminate tax evasion and avoidance, strengthening the administration of revenue to enhance tax collection capacity, and broadening the tax base to collect more of the complex income and wealth taxes.

The representative of the AFS Coordinator noted the need for “improved domestic revenue flows in facilitating the provision of government services and stabilizing the economy in the face of increasing challenges occasioned by the global economy.”

The seminar concluded by reaffirming the need to continuously reform tax administration to address weaknesses; build the capacity for more effective inspection of taxpayers to address complex international transactions; rationalize the use of resources by embracing risk management approaches; implement mechanisms for real-time management approaches and cooperative compliance management; and use more technology for compliance management and for near ubiquitous service provision.

Participants developed reform proposals relevant to their respective countries with a view to implementing them.