The Ministry of Revenue is set to collect 3.8 trillion birr by end of 2030 from tax and tax related services.
According Adanech Abebe, Minister of Revenue, the ten year plan will cover 85 percent of the finance needs of the nation, on sustaining the rapid broad based and inclusive economic growth.
“We are planning to achieve this provided that the economy will grow as planned,” said Adanech.
“To achieve the goal the ministry is working on advancing its services and the system” said Adanech.
As stated by the minister, the Ministry is working on three main issue, to develop systems and tax laws based on international experience, implementing technological information system and creating well educated human resource to the service,
The authority was planning to reach its revenue to half a trillion birr until the end of Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan II (GTP II) which was supposed to end this year. However at the end of the 2019/20, the plan is to collect 270 billion birr. The Ministry is planning to collect 270 billion birr in the current fiscal year and last year the target was to collect 198 billion birr and it collected 197.2 billion birr.
The first half of the current fiscal year has shown success for the Ministry in regards to revenue collection. The Ministry collected more than its plan set at the beginning of the fiscal year, in which the plan was to collect 125.6 billion birr but the authority manages to collect 127.5 billion birr revenue.
The ministry’s target shows 29 percent increase as compared to the last same budget year.
“This is because of the changing culture of the tax payers and the feeling of responsibility” stated Adanech on the dinner prepared to thank high tax payers on February 20, 2020.
Currently on the federal level there are more than 36,000 taxpayers that contribute 80 percent of the total revenue.
In recent time the authority is starting to implement modern technologies to make the paying system more simple and efficient.
Until the end of the current fiscal year the authority is planning to implement e-refund, e-clearance and certain other technologies.
Ministry set to collect 3.8 trillion birr by 2030 from tax
BIOWEAPONRY IS EVIL
The world system doesn’t spare any effort when it comes to developing weapons of mass destruction. The rule of thump in this deadly business is, the newer ones must be more destructive than the existing ones. For the most part, these weapons of mass destruction are intended for use against humanity itself, or a component of it! To justify such horrendous proclivities, the ruling psychopathic elites of the powerful states have prepared ready-made ideologies that can support and facilitate their evil ambitions. One such obsession that always comes in handy is the strategy of separating humanity on the bases of race and ethnicity. Such division, based on the diverse nature of the species, has proved to be quite effective. To create immense hatred towards the ‘others’, a systemic inculcation of fear and insecurity (about all and sundry) became essential. As a result, the global masters have gotten away with mass murders!
Our current world system is one where the greed instinct is raised to the highest level of spirituality. It is now the unquestioned operating principle of the global order. From this organizing dogma to the ideology of worshipping outright evil is a mere footstep away, so to speak! Evil is where the techno-sphere is leveraged to the maximum to bring out the worst in humanity. Organized evil is when society endorses the complete moral degeneration of the human individual as well as the collective. Evil is when some members of society think the universe belongs to them and other life forms, including the whole ecosystem, are merely there to facilitate their parasitic and domineering existence, etc., etc. The ultimate outcome of such a sickening disposition cannot be all that good. In fact, unless collective humanity rebels against this prevailing malaise, our tenure on this delicate planet might be even shorter than anticipated. See Romanoff’s article next column and pages 36 & 37.
All human values that took eons for their institutionalization are being destroyed by the shortsighted and callous manipulations of the prevailing global elites. Justice, honesty, truth, probity, harmony, peace, integrity, solidarity, etc. and their attendant institutions have been grossly undermined, and might well be on their way out! In late modernity, evil has ascended to a position where it can now dictate day-to-day affairs of collective humanity. Amongst the newer institutions that are empowered to implement pure evil, one can mention those agencies that are fully engaged in the production of ‘weapons of mass destruction’. The scary scenario of pending global pandemic due to pathogenic viruses/bacteria, from bioweapon labs, didn’t come with yesterday’s rain, so to speak. It has been around ever since the life sciences were opened up for continuous manipulation. The Japanese were probably the first to systemically experiment with bio weaponry. COVID-19, as the ongoing epidemic/pandemic is now called, might well have accidentally escaped from one of those Frankenstein labs or might have been spread intentionally by psychopathic operators of criminal states. Whatever the case, the fact remains that humanity is on its way to destroying itself in one form or another. Even those who would like to remain behind, after getting rid of the many ‘others’, might not be spared from the affliction of their inherent evil!
‘In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionist, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me-and by that time no one was left to speak up.” Pastor Maritn Neimoller (Nazi victim).
When evil commands all major operations in the world system, why cannot decent humanity try to temper it, even if getting rid of it is an impossibility? “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King Jr. Good Day!
North Star Airways in the making
The new policy change of the government in the aviation industry is bringing private companies to be interested in the aviation industry. One of them North Star Airways that would make its hub at Meqelle, one of the destinations for international airports in the country is now under formation.
The company under formation by the initiative of Mekonnen Assefa, a diaspora, Abay Mehari, president of Wegagen Bank, Gebreegziabher Gebremariam, former athlete and businessman, Kelali Adhana, lecturer at Mekele University and Brook Abayneh as a founding board members has been in activity since August last year.
In February 16 the under formation aviation firm has kicked of the founding assembly at Meqelle town, which will be its future hub.
At the meeting, about 400 potential investors attended, according to Mekonnen, who is elected at the assembly as deputy board chair for external relation.
He told Capital that the founding meeting has elected Getachew Solomon, President of Lion International Bank as board chairperson for the aviation company, while Kelali will serve as deputy for internal relation.
Mekonnen indicated that the government’s decision to open up the sector and even share sales on the national flag carrier and Single African Air Transport Market of African Union encouraged the founders to form the company.
“Besides that the recently amended proclamation law that lifts the seat limitation on the aviation industry has also present a good opportunity and encouraged us to realize our dream,” Mekonnen said.
He added that the peace deal with Eritrea and market demand is the other reason to come on the business.
“Ethiopia has four international airports; Bole International Airport located in Addis Ababa is congested, while Bahir Dar is far from sea ports,” Mekonnen said. “But Dire Dawa and Meqelle Alula Aba Nega airports are the closest for ports, and the comparative advantage of Meqelle is it is the nearest for ports in different countries including Djibouti, Sudan and Eritrea,” he added.
That is one of the major reason the founders preferred Meqelle as a future hub for North Star besides the region is highly attracting new investments, according to the founder.
As per the plan the company would mobilize USD 134 million and targeted to be operational within two years period.
“So far we are not aggressively getting on the share sales but it will happen in the near future after we finalized our office structures,” Mekonnen said.
A single share will have a 10,000 birr value and the minimum share that can be bought is 30 shares and the maximum is 3 million birr but it will increase in time, according to the founder.
After their first meeting the founding board met with regional administration officials including Abraham Tekeste, Head of Trade and Industry Bureau of Tigray region, who appreciates the initiative.
Mekonnen said that as per the initial study they find out the sector has enormous potential as a business. “Based on initial study we have identified that the aviation industry not only internationally but in Ethiopia will have more demands,” he said.
According to Mekonnen, based on a 2017 aviation study South Africa that has less than 60 million population has more than 5,000 aircrafts and when it comes to Kenya it has over 2,000 aircrafts with less than 50 million population.
“When it comes to the number of aircrafts in Ethiopia it is about 140 in 2017 but the population is more than110 million with booming population and the increasing need for air transport is growing,” he added.
According to the plan all services; passenger, cargo, maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO), aviation academy and hot air balloon will be started when the company commences operation.
Labor productivity in Ethiopia grows 4.9% annually
According to the Ethiopian Productivity Report labor productivity in Ethiopia grew at an annual rate of 4.94% during the year from 2000 to 2016, starting from a very low point. Ethiopia’s productivity level is far below from those of such latecomer competitors such as Vietnam, Tanzania, Cambodia and Myanmar.
Among main sectors, services grew fastest in labor productivity, followed by manufacturing. Agricultural productivity lags in both level and rising speed.
“The Ethiopia Productivity Report offers necessary data for policy makers to go deep into the causes of this problem and find possible solutions,” said Prof. Kenichi Ohno, professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies /GRIPS/ and one of the participant on conducting the report.
A strong emergence of manufacturing to lead the nation’s growth into middle income has not been attained. The GDP shares and export contributions of policy supported sub-sectors such as leather; garment and food processing remain small and stagnant.
It is natural for highly industrialized economies to shift to high-tech services, but low income economies such as Ethiopia need to reinforce manufacturing first. Shrinkage of manufacturing before an economy attains full industrialization is in many countries as one symptom of middle income traps according to the report.
According to the data, in the future Ethiopia may face the risk of “premature de-industrialization.” Since around 2012, labor productivity has been driven mostly by heavy capital investment, which seemingly raises workers’ productivity even though they do not improve skills, because they have more machinery and equipment to work with. The contribution of total factor productivity /TFP/, a statistical indicator to gauge true efficiency, declined substantially. This is worrisome because investment-driven growth causes fiscal imbalance, excessive borrowing and foreign exchange shortage. Acceleration is required for further progress.
Labor mobility from rural to urban areas, and from agriculture to manufacturing, is quite limited in Ethiopia compared with other industrializing countries with massive internal labor migration.
The report also suggests for Ethiopia to set its first minimum wage. Using the carefully cleaned manufacturing database of the Central Statistical Agency from 1996 to 2016, the authors report manufacturing labor productivity growth of 4.6% per year but manufacturing labor cost per employee grew at 10.3% per year. For sound development, labor productivity and wage must rise in tandem. The nation should first attain high labor productivity, and then the fruits of this effort should be distributed fairly to workers as equally rapidly rising wages.
The Ethiopia Productivity Report contains statistical analyses, a firm survey and policy advice. It was prepared jointly by the Policy Studies Institute /PSI/, a policy think tank of the Ethiopian government, and the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies /GRIPS/, a national university in Tokyo, Japan.
The research, which started in 2018, was co-funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency /JICA/ and PSI. In the last one-and-half decades, Ethiopia made great progress in real growth, FDI attraction and the construction of hard infrastructure and industrial parks. Despite these achievements, structural transformation has not occurred.
The National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, or GRIPS, is an elite and highly selective research graduate school located in Minato, Tokyo. Funded by the Japanese Government, it has the status of national university.
