Beyond collecting tax, Ministry of Revenue works towards creating a responsible tax payer society. As part of this it has exerted a lot of efforts to contain the various forms of pervasive illegal trade practices.
Recently, after the establishment of the Customs Commission as autonomous entity, detecting and putting the culprits of illegal trade and smuggle to legal liability has shown progress.
Zemedie Teffera is head of law enforcement Department with the Ministry of Revenue with a rank of Deputy Minister. As to him, since last year the Ministry has done structural reform and in line with this, capacity building training is provided to workers to enable effectively fight illegal trade.
With regard to the new working system awareness creation training was given to each department from the federal up to the woreda levels in all the branches of regional offices.
He further said that, a major task force was established under the patronage of the Deputy Prime Minster to support the effort against illegal trade.
The task force comprises various institutions like the Federal Attorney General, the National Information and Security Service (NISS), Ministry of Defense and Federal Police Commission.
In addition to these, committees headed by Regional Government Presidents are also established to work together and periodically evaluate their performance.
According to Zemedie, a new custom’s police force has also been established under the Federal Police Commission while scouts patrol on daily basis the old and new customs check points that stretch from each branch up to national boarder.
Only in the last 10 months the commission was able to capture smuggled import items worth more than 1.5 billion Birr in all customs checkpoints.
The illegal trades are practiced both on incoming and outgoing goods. Most of the smuggled out items are cattle, coffee, gold and others.
The smuggled items are usually confiscated mainly to discourage illicit traders by crippling their financial capacity and to submit the items as evidences when suing the culprits to the court of law.
The other task that the commission accomplished in the last 10 months is tracing and arresting of tax evaders.
Though many traders comply with the tax law of the country to conduct their business there are some of them who engage in tax fraud.
There are also some civil servants who
collaborate with tax evaders. This has incurred a big loss to the economy of the country by wasting a considerable amount of revenue that the government would have obtained in the form of tax.
NISS has played an immense role in
tracing tax offenders. In general about 37.9 million Birr has been rescued from tax evasion.
The custom branch offices such as those at Bole International Airport, Mojo Dry Port and Kality site have played crucial role in this regard.
On the other hand, with the emergency inspection action method the authority has caught goods worth 230 million Birr which tried to pass the check points through illegal means.
As to Zemedie, the commission encourages private custom transitors to perform their activities with a professional integrity. He indicated that there are some transitors who often allow customers to pick up their imported goods unchecked.
In connection with such malpractice, the authority has confiscated goods worth 230 million Birr as the owners attempted to pass checkpoints without paying the necessary duties.
Some clients who were given privileges to instantly pick up their items by considering their loyalty were also engaged in tax fraud. In this regard, the authority has put under control goods worth 4.6 billion Birr while the owners were fined additional money. Some corrupt staff members have also been found guilty in such offences.
To encourage local and international investors the government provides incentives and among other tax holidays and importing goods free from taxes can be mentioned. But some investors seldom
found to abuse such privileges.
According to Mulugeta Beyene, the Law Enforcement Vice Commissioner, such malpractices have persisted for years unabated. But the government promulgated proclamation number 1162/2009 to monitor and control the situation. The proclamation stipulates the proper utilization of tax free privileges.
The proclamation gives mandate to the Ministry of Finance to bestow privilege to the pertinent entities. But the inspection and supervision mandate is given to the customs authority. Enterprises engaged in new investment ventures which create job opportunities to the youth are some of the privileged entities.
The government’s intention in providing incentive to the enterprises is a forward looking approach to create a better future for citizens. Had the tax been collected from the import items, a good sum of many could have been gained.
However, irrespective of the government’s far sighted intention some groups are found to abuse their import privileges and use the goods for unintended purposes. In this regard, properties imported free of tax worth 449.3 million Birr and used for unintended purposes are confiscated and became part of the government treasure.
On the other hand, more than 28 staff members who were found guilty of collaborating illegal traders have been fired from their jobs and sent to custody. Currently, their case is sent to the attorney general.
The Ethiopian Herald June 21/2020
BY ABEBE WOLDE GIORGIS
