The Ministry of Revenue (MoR) is vying to extend the Value Added Tax (VAT) declaration period beyond the current one month to three months.
MoR has been working to simplify tax law and become more efficient. Recently it made a change to the VAT refund directive, in order to have the refund delivered within 45 days instead of the previous five months.
Befirdu Messeret, Tax Payers Education Director at MoR, told Capital that they are trying to make doing business and paying taxes easier.
Sources at MoR told Capital they are trying to loosen the VAT declaration period and allow more time.
Currently businesses registered to collect VAT have to settle their collection in the month after the collection period. The current proposed option may allow VAT declarations to be settled within three months, although a final decision has not been made.
Many felt one month was too short a time to settle VAT and that MoR facilities were inefficient.
VAT collection, which is 15 percent of most of sales of goods and services, is a recent addition to the tax regime in Ethiopia, applied after the ratification of Proclamation No 285/2002 and implemented since 2003.
The tax body is also undertaking several changes in the tax settlement processes, which they plan to announce soon. They have also formed a group of government leaders under the chairmanship of PM Abiy Ahmed to improve the country’s doing business rank. The World Bank’s 2019 Ease of Doing Business put the country at 159 from 190 countries. Regional countries like Rwanda and Kenya stood at 29th and 61st respectively.
There have been marked improvements with tax collection in the past few months, which is a change from the trend of the last two years.
Compared with other countries tax collection is poor. Two years ago, the government improved the tax GDP ratio about 13 percent, then it declined to 11 percent last budget year. The government projects that the GDP tax ratio will stand at 17 percent by next budget year, which is the last year of five-year development program, Growth and Transformation Plan II.
VAT reporting period extended
WE STAND ON THE SIDE LINE AND WE ALL GO UNDER
Today, we turn our attention to those people that sit silently in protest as others speak out. I mean the so called ‘Silent Majority’.
These people don’t express their opinions publicly. They do not join in any demonstrations against anything, nor belong to any movement, political party, or any counterculture. They don’t participate in public debates, don’t engage with each other to decide collectively upon their future. This group is overwhelmed and eclipsed by every vocal minority. Many are discontent, but they never speak up or defend publicly the vocal minority who defend their rights and liberty. As they say ‘when the silent majority opens its mouth, it’s usually to yawn!’
The silent majority is everywhere in Ethiopia. Its members are ordinary people but overwhelmingly those with wealth and education. We don’t know about you, but just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you. If you (the silent majority) don’t urgently reconsider your ‘laissez faire’ attitude, a systemic crisis awaits us all.
In the past couple of years, two distinct policies have struggled for primacy in the debate over the country’s political future: Oromo separatism striving for an independent state, and TPLF’s federal centralism striving to preserve the common Ethiopian state under its dominion. Recent political developments suggest the Oromo movement heading towards Oromo dominated federalism and TPLF nationalism swinging between separatist and oppositional politics.
Too complicated! Welcome to Ethiopian politics.
So where does that leave us? Can we really afford to ignore our duty and not take an active part in the rebuilding of the nation? Remember, he who controls government in 2020 has control for years.
I don’t mean to sound arrogant but right off the bat I say Ethiopia’s silent majority is defined by the broad consensus that has emerged in the country around the building of a multi ethnic nation. This consensus needs to be clearly stated. At present, it’s obscured by the oft-repeated idea that the nation is deeply polarized, as if Ethiopians are torn between support for a union of nine or more republics on one side, and secession seekers on the other. They aren’t. On the political battlefield, secessionists have been routed….at least for now. I submit we are in a period of profound transition – to what?… we do not know!
Yet, the root of Ethiopia’s current crisis is economic. The big exporters all report slowing sales. And the logistic companies too, say there is less traffic on the ports used by Ethiopia. Economic slowdown is not the end of the world. It’s a challenge! It creates opportunities if Ethiopia enables the private sector to drive economic growth, toughens security, combats corruption, further decentralizes power from the center outward, , and guarantees human rights. All of these may not fix the problems, but at least they will set the stage for a thriving economy. A topic we will explore next.
As I pointed out earlier, the silent majority needs to wake up and seize the moment in setting the political agenda. It needs to define what it really wants and realize that the current crisis can take the country through a downward spiral of collapsing expectations: from it being unthinkable that the union of regional states would break up, to it seeming inevitable that it would; from living an everyday working life to seeing your standard of living and the whole economy collapse beyond repair; from moving normally around your town, to fearing for your safety on the streets, based on what others read as your ethnicity. In a nutshell the silent majority have to step up ASAP and support financially or engage with all progressive forces that work to maintain Ethiopia from breaking up! Starting with postponement of the 2020 election!
Indeed, my guess is the silent majority would overwhelmingly support postponing the 2020 election if AA proposes the idea. The context of this scenario is that the election would be bad for Ethiopia and bad for democracy not only because all the institutions of democracy are still visibly frail but also because the country faces existential crisis. Furthermore political parties – the key players in our democracies – are in disarray – particularly the ruling party, which made itself dysfunctional, should pull itself together even more firmly. If all these cannot be addressed within the normal political process, AA has a strong legal argument to mobilize partisan support in parliament to invoke national emergency and make sure proper elections are taking place. He can then call a national conference of the regional governments to sort out the relative position of the federal and regional governments, agree on the items requiring constitutional changes, proceed with the dismantling of regional militia forces, decide on what should be the country’s shared priorities and the agenda for further negotiations.
Should AA and the ruling party fail to consider such a scheme, it will mean that we don’t want to learn from history… that we greatly overestimated the man in Menilik Gibi… and, in short, that we don’t know shi!t about government.
Yes dear reader, there is indeed an emergency. And emergency powers are just that – for emergencies, and I believe if used in good faith the national emergency can address the genuine tribulations Ethiopia currently faces.
Get involved! Get organized!! Let’s make a future together.
Kebour Ghenna
70 YEARS OF NATO
It would help to have some background information about NATO as well as the now defunct WARSAW PACT. NATO was established in 1949 with 12 countries as member states. Today it has 29 members in North America and Europe. It also acknowledges Ukraine and Georgia, former USSR states, as aspiring members. It continues to groom other countries in Eastern Europe to join its membership. It also has intention to expand in South America and the Middle East. The Warsaw Pact was formed in 1955 between the former USSR and 7 other East European countries. All these countries are now full members of NATO, save Russia. The Warsaw Pact was a reaction to West Germany’s joining of NATO in 1955!
Obvious questions arise. Why should the allied countries that collectively won WWII, needed to have a new military alliance? And from whom were they trying to defend themselves? Even though the USSR sacrificed the most to defeat the axis forces, (Germany, Italy, et al, in WWII) it ended up becoming the number one enemy of the West, once the war was over. The very strategy of NATO was based on this not so subtle objective. This project was called the ‘Cold War’. To be sure, in the first half of the 20th century, ‘the socialisms’ were in clear ascendance all over the world. The socialism of the USSR or more precisely, ‘Sovietism’, which collapsed in 1989 under its own dead weight, served the West as a useful gadfly, so to speak. Before the demise of the USSR however, its leader and the then US president came to an understanding that NATO would not expand ‘even an inch’ towards the east, i.e. Eastern Europe. That proved to be a complete lie! Moreover, in 2003 the US unilaterally abrogated the ‘anti ballistic missile treaty’, sensing Russia’s weakness at the time. This again proved to be a short-sighted calculus, on the part of the US/NATO leadership!
Recently, President Trump trumped the ‘intermediate nuclear forces treaty’, which was signed by the leaders of the then two superpowers, USSR & USA. The objective of the treaty was to reduce the threat of nuclear war, mostly in Europe. Now that assurance is gone, Russia’s intermediate nuclear missiles are going to target western & eastern European cities and military bases, while NATO’s (intermediate missiles) will target Russian cities and other strategic sites. In other words, Europe is back to the future, so to speak. Unless, these intermediate missiles are dismantled, Europe is going to be a war theatre, just like the good old days! However and unlike before, consequences of modern warfare are not going to be forgiving. The danger is now compounded even more, as Russia today commands hi-tech arsenals that are second to none! There is literally no defensive mechanism, anywhere on earth, that can stop these highly sophisticated weapon systems from reaching their assigned targets.
For a start, almost all of these weapons leverage hypersonic delivery systems, which make them difficult to track let alone bring down! These projectiles can also change their trajectories in mid-air, if commanded. Again, this adds to the challenges of devising an effective defense systems. Russia has also developed very quiet submarines that are difficult to detect and which can carry very potent weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles with as many as 24 independently targeted re-entry vehicles. Amongst these, some might be only decoys while the rest can be the real things. Given all these deterrence systems in place why is NATO still engaged in uncalled provocations? We will not try to answer this today. Instead, we will leave it to Prof. Campbell to do so. See his article next column.
Twenty years ago NATO attacked Yugoslavia, without UNSC (United Nation Security Council) resolution, a clear breach of the Nuremberg agreement, which stipulates that any country that attacks another country without UNSC resolution is guilty of ‘war crime’ or is actively committing ‘war of aggression’. And its leaders will be prosecuted for crimes against humanity! In 2003, NATO attacked Iraq, without UNSC resolution. Again, this was also a war of aggression! Thereafter, NATO bombarded Libya, under the pretext of protecting civilians! Then came Syria. Yet again, the UNSC was unable to stop the country’s destabilization, as three of the five permanent members are NATO members! Recently, the US/NATO installed a puppet government in Ukraine, by instigating a coup d’état. Georgia, another core member of the former USSR was at war in 2008 against Russian forces situated in Ossetia, of course as NATO’s proxy. Again, this was another shortsighted incursion that resulted in South Ossetia succeeding from Georgia altogether. Because of stupidity and hubris instigated by NATO, Ukraine has also lost Crimea to the Russian Republic and its eastern and southern regions are in a flux, to say the least. If truth be told, it was only recently that Crimea was gifted to Ukraine. Khrushchev, (head of USSR) in one of his drinking bouts just felt like giving Crimea to Ukraine! Note though, all these entities were still part of the larger USSR at the time. Today many people, including the large majority of the Western sheeple (human mass) do not like the way the US is handling situations, not only in Europe, but all over the world. Recent surveys conducted globally show that the majority of people in the world regard USA as the number one threat to world peace!
NATO’s first secretary general was candid in the mission of the military alliance. Its objective, he said, was; “ To keep Russia out, the Americans in, and Germany down”. Britain’s Lord Ismay. Good Day!
Addis to outsource waste disposal
The Addis Ababa Waste Management Agency is to outsource transportation of solid waste to micro enterprises and private companies in a bid to modernize the city’s waste disposal system.
Currently a majority of trash is collected door-to-door collection system and carried out by micro and small enterprises and the remainder by private companies and employees from the city administration. They carry waste using pushcarts to a common temporary storage points for the trucks to pick up them and take them to a dump. 
Some of these disposal sites are on street sides and pedestrian walkways. Because trash collection workers make a low salary, collection is inconsistent.
“Outsourcing the collection, transportation and dumping of trash will solve many problems,” says Kassahun Tsige, Agency Director. The Agency plans to increase pay to micro enterprises and private companies.
For micro enterprises the agency will pay and additional 42 birr per cubic meter from the previous 132 birr. Private companies will get a seven birr increase from the pervious 97 birr per cubic meter fee. In Addis there are 74 solid waste collecting micro enterprises and 10 private solid waste collecting companies. “The new system should be more convenient,” Kassahun said.
