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Two vice mayor for Addis on trial basis

Tesfaye Getnet
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For the last 27 years there has been one vice mayor serving on the Addis Ababa city council, however as a test two vice mayors were assigned last week.
Abate Setotaw served as vice mayor for a long time, he resigned to make way for one male and one female vice mayor. A source close to the mayor’s office told Capital that the experimental position was created because there is so much work. “In the past years a deputy mayor was busy in political, economic and social aspects which was very hard to handle so we are having two deputy mayors to divide the tasks.”

photo: Anteneh Aklilu
photo: Anteneh Aklilu

According to the source they will review the results after two years to decide whether or not to make the position permanent or return to the old system.
Recently Degmawit Mogees (the former Addis Ababa communication head) and Solomon Kidane (PhD) (former Head of Roads and Transport Office) were assigned to be vice mayor until the city carries out its next election in a year.
Takele Umma (Eng.), who is not a member of the City Council, was appointed Deputy Mayor of the city with a mayor rank. If Takele was the member of the council he would hold the mayor title. It is the first time in Addis Ababa’s history it has been led by a deputy mayor.
Takele was a member of the Oromia Regional State Cabinet and a head of  Oromia Transport Bureau.
According to experts, lack of efficient management capacity in the city remains the main challenge for the city. Takele will be expected to address problems surrounding housing, inflation and unemployment in the next year.

PM calls on citizens to exchange money legally, and it is bearing fruit

Muluken Yewondwossen
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This week PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD) called for people to stop hoarding money at home and to shun the black market when exchanging hard currency. And it seems working. Right after he announced that people flock to banks to exchange their foreign currency, some in support of the recent reform and some in fear of legal actions the government will take.

During a presser following the three day visit of Eritrean President Isayas Afeworqi, PM Abiy appreciated the public’s hospitality during the events and then used the occasion to discuss steps to improve the country’s foreign exchange situation.

Prime Minister Abiy addressed two major issues, local currency being kept out of banks and hard currency being traded on informal markets.

According to the financial law, banks have to report deposits greater than 200,000 birr to the Ethiopia Financial Intelligence Center.

PM Abiy called for banks to receive cash of any amount without any question and said the government would prosecute people who kept large amounts of cash at their homes.

“I think the PM wants to stop people from keeping millions of birr in their home safes or business offices,” one banker said.

“In my view keeping 100,000 birr at home isn’t that big of a deal but some people don’t use banks and keep millions of birr in their hands,” the banker continued.

“We are now receiving a large amount of hard currency so I advise anyone who has foreign currency in their hands to exchange it via the legal market to avoid further damage,” Abiy added.

He did not elaborate what he meant by damage.

The exchange rate on the black market has been volatile lately.

In the past few months it escalated rapidly up to 37 birr and then declined recently.

Currently a dollar is exchanged at banks for 27.3 birr and on the black market for 27.5 to 27.8 birr.

Hopes are that PM Abiy’s statements will help further alleviate the discontent between the informal market and the bank.

Market observers stated that about a week ago the parallel market rate dropped to 28.5 birr per USD from 37 birr.

Recently the PM which is very popular in every corner of the country,  invited the Diaspora to remit money legally (through money transfer services) as opposed to using the black market, which has been observed to be one of the reasons for the hard currency shortage.

Other observers stated that the government has taken serious action and cut some of the strong networks in the contraband business chain which has reduced the appeal of trading currency illegally.

 

Twenty six thousand condos to be transferred this September

Tesfaye Getnet
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New Condominiums will come to Koye Fitche, Yeka Abadu, Bole Bulbula and Hana Furi areas this September.
The Addis Ababa Housing Development Project Office (AAHDPO), which has faced flack over the pace of housing construction is set to transfer 26,000 20/80 condos during a condo lottery draw that will take place in the Municipality Hall.
One, two and three bedroom houses are available. The one and two bedroom homes will be given to people who registered in the 2005 registration scheme.  Neseru Temam public relations officer for AAHDPO told Capital that they are awaiting a decision from the mayor’s office to choose the target beneficiaries for the three bedroom homes.
“All of the people who requested three bedroom homes during the 2005 registration received them, so we are in the process of deciding what to do with the remaining three bedroom homes.’’
He added that another 66,000 houses will be transferred in the next two years.
“We have an additional 78,000 people who registered in 2005 and if we continue at our current pace will will get the houses to them by 2012.”
The draw will give priority to women to help them with the acute economic problems they are facing and to improve their role and capacity in society.
People who won in the condominium housing lottery are expected to pay 20% of the total amount in advance. The rest will be paid in installments over many years.
Currently an estimated 1.6 million people in Addis Ababa live in rental homes while 3 million people share rooms with other people, and 375,000 residents live in government owned houses. Seventy percent of the houses in Addis Ababa are made of mud.
Currently, there are 38,790 40/60 and 130, 000 condominium units that are under construction on different sites. However, due to poor capacity of contractors and consultants, and inadequate government supervision, most of the projects are behind schedule. Only 1,292 housing units of 40/60 and 175,000 units of 20/80 have been transferred to the Addis Ababa people in the last 13 years.

Draft law to introduce tax agencies

admin
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Law, Management, Accounting and Economics fields are eligible for the license

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation (MOFEC) tabled a draft directive to license tax agents to represent tax payers. The bill which was presented to the business community for consultation made Accounting, Management, Economics and Law Bachelor Degree holders eligible for the license.
Five years of experience at a tax agency job and possession of a business license to provide this service are among criteria needed to become a representative. ERCA is responsible for evaluating the competence of agents and monitoring their activities.
The agent will represent the clients regarding every aspect of tax related issues including declaring taxes, complaints and representing their interests.
The law was deemed necessary because tax payers wanted a professional to help them navigate the tax system.
ERCA will give trainings prior to issuing a license to the agents followed by a written test. A candidate must score above 50% to get a competence certificate, according to the draft.
Two different levels of licenses are being presented by the draft where one is an agent who can represent every type of taxpayer and another is an agent which cannot represent Level A taxpayers.
The agents are prohibited from  declining to answer clarification presented by the Authority, undertaking activities without renewing their license and undertaking agent activities which are not in the permitted levels and in addition, must follow other income tax laws.
The national Audit Board believes only accountants should be allowed to be tax agents and not other degree holders.
“If the role of the tax agent is limited to liaison responsibility we can agree but if the activity is extended to the entire financial activities it will be a regrettable decision by the government,” said Gashe Yemane Desta, CEO of the board.
Gashe believes that the application of the directive will incur additional cost to the tax payer who will be obliged to hire an auditor to do the financial work and to hire an agent to communicate with the Authority. He cited the United Sates’ experience of allowing agents from other professions because of the imbalance between the business community and professionals which he believes to be not the case in Ethiopia.
“There are enough accountants in Ethiopia which can do the professional work,” he said.
The bill also demanded a guarantee of 10,000 birr for a level one agent and 50,000 birr for level two agents.
The draft will come into effective after the Minister, Abraham Tekeste (PhD), of MoFEC signed its approval.

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