VAT, INCOME TAX ORDER TO BE AMENDED

ZULWINI - Government of Eswatini was in the process of facilitating amendments that would improve the tax legislation environment in the country.

Many businesses had in the past years faced liquidation and foreclosure due to debts and tax penalties. Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg said as government they were committed to creating conducive environment for doing business in the country. The minister was speaking during Business Eswatini Tax Indaba which was hosted at Royal Villas yesterday, where he was invited as a keynote speaker. The indaba was aimed at addressing tax related issues affecting businesses locally and abroad, as well as educating the business more on tax. Rijkenberg said they were in the process of facilitating amendments that would improve the tax legislation environment and make local laws responsive to their harsh realities while ensuring sustainability of the fiscus.

He said specific examples were the Amendment of the VAT Act and the proposed amendments to the Income Tax Order. “Other legislations were also to follow to ensure that our legislations were relevant and support economic growth as well as the welfwere of emaSwati,” he said. The minister added that taxes and their ability to move goods with ease were important elements of a conducive business environment. He alluded that key indicators that they had used in the past to track progress and international competitiveness in these wereas had been the Paying Taxes and Trading Across Borders indices of the now discontinued Ease of Doing Business Indicator by the World Bank. He mentioned that they had continued to prioritise improvements in the tax and trade environments despite the absence of the ease of doing business indicator.  

Environment

Rijkenberg added that the significance of the business environment had not escaped the watchful attention of government. “Along these efforts of improving the aforementioned aspects of the business environment, as a country we were improving tax policy design and tax compliance by making it easier for taxpayers to comply while deterring those that deliberately refuse to comply,” he said. The keynote speaker added that through the Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS), they had introduced several initiatives to support government’s intention to simplify compliance. He mentioned that this was by way of various action programmes that entail the digitalisation programme, the debt-relief programme and the transformation of ERS into a service-oriented organisation.

Newly appointed ERS Commissioner General Brightwell Nkambule said the programme was a necessity to the economy of the country because many businesses had a tendency of ignoring the principal tax. He said ERS usually takes its agents (businesses that were registered and pay taxes) to court for the interest and penalty Tax excluding the Principal Tax. Business Eswatini Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nathi Dlamini emphasised on the importance of tax clearance to businesses.

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