Ethiopian govt plans to increase yearly income from excise tax by $1bn

The Ethiopian government is preparing its ground to enhance its annual income from excise tax every year by around USD 1 billion.

Eyob Tekalign, the State Minister of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Finance recently told the journalists that the government of Ethiopia has finalized revision of excise tax law of the country that enables the government to collect additional 20 to 30 billion birr (around USD 702 million to USD 1.1 billion) annually.

The Government of Ethiopia is recently being praised by the African Development Bank for implementing a successful tax reform policy that has boosted the income of the country.

According to Tekalign, the augmentation in revenue from excise tax will play a crucial role in enhancing the development of various sectors, including education, health and agriculture. The ministry is also planning to introduce single treasury account to modernize the finance system which will enable the government to utilize collected taxes in a proper manner.

The State Minister Tekalign noted that the pilot program would be made on seven government institutions this Ethiopian fiscal year. Besides, the state minister said that the Electronic-Government Procurement (E-GP) software is being developed by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology to improve good governance in the procurement management system, NewBusinessEthiopia.com.

Recently the Ministry of Revenue of Ethiopia has indicated collecting a total of 145 billion birr (USD 5 billion) during the first nine months of Ethiopian fiscal year started July 8, 2019.

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