African Tax Administration Forum ends in Accra
Accra, June 19, GNA- Mr. Oupa Magashula, Acting Commissioner
of the South African Revenue Service, on Friday asked
African Tax administrators to forge a united front, in order
to strengthen tax mobilisation to ensure minimal loss of
revenue to the continent.
Mr. Magashula made the call at the African Tax
Administration Forum (ATAF) Steering Group meeting in Accra.
The Steering Group comprise of tax Commissioners from seven
African countries, including Ghana.
Mr. Magashula expressed regret that some multinational
companies, operating in Africa use local resources to
advance their enterprises, but fail to pay the needed tax to
advance the socio-economic development of host nations.
He said some of these companies deliberately look for
countries with weak tax revenue mobilization system to do
business in order to “export their profits and import their
losses”.
Mr. Magashula therefore called for collaborative efforts
from African countries to clamp down on the activities of
such tax-evasive multinationals.
“If we don’t co-operate to solve the situation on hand, the
poverty threat in the continent will worsen and we will all
go down in the economic slum,” he cautioned.
He called for provisions of treaties and regulations by ATAF
member countries to bind such multinationals in order to
ensure optimal mobilization of domestic resources of host
nations for development.
Mr. Magashula said the tax administration forum was critical
in addressing the global economic crisis and its negative
impact on the continent.
He said lack of regulation in the financial sector was one
of the causes of the global crisis, but expressed the hope
that co-operation on the part of ATAF member countries would
help address the issue.
Major Daniel Ablorh-Quarcoo (RTD), Commissioner of the
Internal Revenue Service, expressed the need for Ghana to
utilise its resources judiciously “in order to stand on its
feet.”
“When we are able to mobilize resources on our own to solve
the problem that we have, then donor nations can be free,”
he said.
At the last year’s international conference on taxation,
held in Pretoria, South Africa, the Organisation for
Economic Development and Co-operation (OEDC) and GTZ,
(German Agency for Technical Co-operation), tasked the
steering group to establish ATAF in order to help in tax
revenue mobilization in Africa.
OECD is an international organization that provides the
setting for governments to compare policy experiences, seek
answers to common problems, identify good practices and
co-ordinate domestic and international policies.
GNA
