Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) has entered an agreement  with Holland tax administration in a bid to improve Rwanda’s taxation policies and minimise the tax gap.

The two-year bi-lateral cooperation was signed on Thursday in Kigali by RRA’s Commissioner General Richard Tushabe, and Holland’s International tax advisor Peter P.E van Tienhoven.

Tushabe said the cooperation  not only aims at strengthening Rwanda-Holland economic ties  but also focuses on helping RRA cut down on its taxation imbalances through training local tax administrators.

"This agreement is meant to help us improve our taxation system through training majorly in Auditing, Risk management, international taxation and other tax-payer services,” Tushabe said.

He said RRA staff has occasionally travel to Holland for capacity building trainings, adding that the agreement will benefit Rwanda’s revenue programmes.

Currently Rwanda, has a 14 per cent tax gap and other tax imbalances that resulted from poor taxation policies.

Tienhoven says the two-year capacity building cooperation is designed to improve taxpayer services and auditing scheme in Rwanda’s fast-growing sectors of mining and construction and to ensure that RRA closely monitors  these sectors.

This bi-lateral cooperation is one of the international capacity building schemes Rwanda has embarked on as a way of improving its revenue collection sector.

The bi-lateral capacity building programme is funded by Holland tax administration through  mutual understanding with Rwanda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.