Members of parliament are insisting that officials from the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) make the list of people involved in the contraband business public. However, no response to the request was given. On Tuesday January 30 during the regular session the Authority appeared with its representatives to deliver their first half year performance report. Moges Balcha, Director General of ERCA, talked about what they have been doing to collect more taxes and clamp down on tax cheats.
He pointed to the National Contraband Trade Controlling Command Post formed to battle contraband.He said that in the first six months of the budget year 331.6 million birr of smuggled goods were seized. However, this is a 10.5 percent reduction from the preceding year.They also confiscated 105 million birr worth of goods that people were trying to smuggle out of Ethiopia illegally, an increase of 121 percent from the same period last year.
A week ago in its report the Ministry of Trade announcedthat even though the national Command Post stretching from the federal to the Kebele level was established, illegal border trade still continues to be a major challenge and hinders the country’s hard currency earnings.
Many members of parliament remained concerned about contraband trade.
“We have heard several times about contraband at the sessions at the parliament we want to know how these people are engaged in the business and what actions you took to stop them,” one of the parliament members asked the executives of ERCA.
Meanwhile the people’s representatives were eager to know about those that they called contrabandists but the executives of ERCA retreated. “It will be disclosed when the time comes,” ERCA officials said.
Moges reported that in the last fiscal year there were 19,557 corporate business income tax payers. However, only 65.4 percent ended up paying taxes. The rest either reported a loss or no income.
In the first six months of this fiscal year there were 18,178 VAT registered businesses. Of those only 32 percent ended up paying taxes, while 42.8 percent reported they were owed a refund and 25 percent said they owed no taxes or qualified for a refund.
“The customs area is also the same based on a random study, only 80 percent of the imported items came under invoice,” he said.
Moges said that the culture poses a very big problem because paying tax is not valued. Ethiopia is one of the countries with the lowest tax collection compared with its GDP.
Currently, ERCA has a system to review those who reported nil or a refund on their monthly vat report and has identified that most made false statements, according to the director’s report.
During the first half of the budget year ERCA had the goal of collecting 109.4 billion birr but it collected 83 percent of that amount, or 91 billion birr. The achievement is an increase of over 12 percent compared with the same period last year.
Contraband trade continues to vex ERCA
AU Summit attended by 49 Heads of State, over 10,000 Delegates
Ethiopia has successfully hosted the 30th Ordinary Session of the African Union, which was attended by more than 10,000 delegates, 49 heads of state, the UN Secretary-General, and Arab League officials, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During his weekly briefing, Foreign Affairs Spokesman Meles Alem said the session was peacefully conducted due to the strong commitment of the Ethiopian government and the public.
Close to 680 journalists from all over the world also covered the event.
According to Meles, the capacity exhibited by Addis Ababa as Africa’s center for diplomacy and political affairs was demonstrated by the successful conclusion of this summit.
Ethiopia has also played a significant role in the success of AU’s agenda by forwarding constructive ideas which contributed to the amazing summit, he added.
The country has achieved tangible results from the summit in diplomatic relations, image building, political and economic achievements, the spokesperson stressed.
Ethiopia’s contribution to peace and security in Africa and the entire world was also recognized, the spokesman stated.
Meles also pointed out that many countries have shown an interest in working with Ethiopian Airlines to strengthen their aviation industry.
The 30th Ordinary Session of the African Union was held from January 22-29 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In a related development, Meles also visited Capital’s headquarters on Wednesday January 31, located around Rwanda Embassy and held talks with the newspaper’s Managing Editor and Editor-in-Chief.
Promoting domestic tourism, engaging children with the environment
With the aim of creating awareness about the importance of domestic tourism and the need to teach children why it is important to protect and learn about their environment, Travel Ethiopia launched a new project.
The company, a longtime player in the tourism sector with almost 25 years of existence, stated that it will be carrying out several activities to help increase domestic travel by locals and expats as well as work with different schools so that children can learn more about their country and environment.
“We launched this project on January 15th, 2018. One of our aims is to give the opportunity for children and students to learn about the environment, to know about their surroundings and their country. So this week on Thursday, we took our first batch of students from the Edget Behibret School to the Born Free animal sanctuary. These are students that do not have the opportunity to visit such places because they live in harsh economic conditions,” said Samrawit Moges, Managing Director of Travel Ethiopia.
Travel Ethiopia started to work with Edget Behibret as it is a school for many vulnerable children that come from poor families. On the trip the students learned about the importance of protecting the environment, limiting plastic usage as well as the need to keep surroundings free from trash.
“In the Rotary club of Addis Ababa West, which I belong to, there are two Rotarians that carry out school feeding programs. One of the schools where this program is implemented is Edget Behibret; so that is why we decided to work with the children and give them the opportunity to visit the Born Free sanctuary. It was a really heartwarming experience because none of them have actually seen a lion for example. This is true for most children in general. It was an exciting trip,” Samrawit said.
Now Travel Ethiopia is working on collaborating with different institutions such as banks and insurance companies to preach and promote this idea of traveling within the country. “We plan to do this with Castel Winery as well. Most of these companies organize employee retreats, but usually they don’t go somewhere where they can learn something about the environment or history. We hope to change that,” she underlines.
Samrawit says that through the project she plans to reach all 300 students at Edget Behibret with the opportunity to visit the Born Free Sanctuary as well as other places.
“The trip costs are covered by us given the circumstances of these students. We cannot do this for everyone obviously, for schools that cannot afford to send the children on trips we plan on hopefully connecting them with institutions that would sponsor the trips.”
“We all need to collaborate to bring awareness about domestic travel. It shouldn’t be only foreigners that come here and visit places; we need to do this as well. It’s a very important part of tourism revenue and yet not a lot of focus is put there,” Samrawit asserted.
She also pointed out, on the next trip that will be organized, students will learn more about indigenous plants in Ethiopia and will be part of a seedling planting activity.
The African Union Assembly concludes with aim to achieve Agenda 2063
The 30th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Summit held with the theme ‘Winning the Fight Against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation’ ended on 29 January 2018, at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. It ended with the adoption of key decisions by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government. Below are the summarized points.
They agreed that a Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) is vital to the achievement of the long-term vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa under the AU Agenda 2063; because it will bring about enhanced connectivity across the continent leading to sustainable development of the aviation and tourism industry with immense contribution to economic growth, job creation, prosperity and integration of Africa. It’s against this backdrop the Assembly adopted the Decision on the Establishment of a Single African Air Transport Market. Twenty-three (23) Member States have declared their Solemn Commitment to the immediate implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision towards establishment of a Single African Air Transport so far.
With regard to an African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), the Assembly decided to hold an Extraordinary Summit on 21 March 2018, preceded by an Extraordianary Session of the Executive Council on 19 March 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda, to consider the CFTA Legal instruments and sign the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area and requested that the AU Commission convene an Extraordinary session of the STC on Justice and Legal Affairs to consider the instruments prior to the Summit.
The Assembly also adopted a protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community relating to Free Movement of Persons, Rights of Residence and Right of Establishment and its Draft Implementation Roadmap.
To help finance the Union, the Assembly decided that the membership of the Committee of Ministers of Finance should be expanded from ten (10) to fifteen (15) members based on the principles of equitable geographical distribution and rotation. In this regard, the Committee will be called the Committee of Fifteen Ministers of Finance.
In refrence to the Report of the Leader of the African Union High-Level Committee on Libya, the Assembly expressed once again its deep concern over the persistent political impasse and the security situation in Libya, which perpetuates the suffering of the Libyan people, undermines the legal institutions of the country and poses a challenge to security and stability in neighbouring countries and in the entire region. The Assembly asked the African Union Commission to re-launch the efforts of the Contact Group on Libya, in close cooperation with the United Nations, in order to pool the efforts of the international community on the issue and support the efforts of the African Union High-Level Committee on Libya and expressed once again, its appreciation to Denis Sassou Nguesso, President of the Republic of Congo, Leader of the African Union High-Level Committee on Libya, to the African Union Special Representative,. Jakaya Kikwete, as well as to neighbouring countries, for the efforts made towards achieving lasting peace in Libya.
On the Report of the Peace and Security Council abouth its Activities and the State of Peace and Security in Africa, the Assembly welcomed the signing, on 21 December 2017, by the South Sudanese stakeholders of an Agreement of Cessation of Hostilities, Protection of Civilians and Humanitarian Access, and commended IGAD for leading the High Level Revitalization Forum, which presents a unique opportunity for the implementation of the Agreement for the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS), in line with the Communique of the 720th meeting of the PSC, held at the ministerial level, in New York, on 20 September 2017. The Assembly expressed deep concern over the repeated violations of the Agreement by the parties, resulting in further deterioration of the already dire humanitarian situation caused by the ongoing conflict, and stated that all warring parties should stop military actions immediately and keep the commitments they agreed to on December 21, 2017. With regard to the Implementation of the Assembly Decision on the Institutional Reform of the African Union, the Assembly reiterated the commitment to the reform and renewal of the Union as part of the effort to ensure delivery of Agenda 2063 as an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in international arena. The Assembly decided that the Reform Troika will be expanded to the Bureau of the Assembly and will collaborate with President Kagame in his capacity as Lead on the AU Institutional Reform process.
On the African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) Initiative, the Assembly reaffirmed commitment to end hunger by 2025 through strengthening development policies as an effective investment in the human capital of our countries; and re-committed to end child stunting by reducing stunting to 10% and underweight to 5% by 2025 and in particular, focusing on the first 1000 Days as the only window of opportunity during which permanent and irreversible physical and mental damage would be avoided.
