Taxpayers are now relieved from time wasting and long queues in their quest to meet their tax obligations as the tax administration in collaboration with Mobile telecommunication network (MTN Rwanda) recently ushered in a mobile money tax payment platform.

The facility comes in addition to different online tax payment services that have transformed the tax payment process in Rwanda by greatly easing the process of declaring and paying taxes. Such facilities include but not limited to e-filing and e-payment, online declaration of non fiscal revenues, the M-declaration where taxpayers use their phones to declare taxes, Electronic single window, the Single Customs Territory Framework implemented jointly with other East African countries along the Northern and Central Corridors that have all contributed to a significant reduction in the cost of doing business in Rwanda and the region as a whole.

During the launching ceremony recently, the Rwanda Revenue Authority Commissioner General, TUSABE Richard, stated that mobile money tax payment platform would strongly enable taxpayers to easily and quickly remit their due taxes by using their mobile phones on the MTN mobile money facility and this was seen as a ground breaking innovation in

"This is a groundbreaking scheme that has come to facilitate the existing online tax declaration platforms by enabling SMEs to instantly pay taxes using their mobile telephones,” Tusabe noted.

The payment of taxes using mobile money, comes in a wake of RRA’s strive to transform tax payment by introducing the simplest and possible methods that are more affordable and friendly to taxpayers.

MTN CEO, Ebenezer Asante said that this move is aimed at strengthening maximum satisfaction and convenience to its subscribers.

"We closely take note of the digital world our customers’ lives revolve in and we don’t want factors like time or distance to be a disincentive for any of our customers to access a service. Mobile Money offers a convenient and simplified way of paying taxes by reducing the administrative burden and by allowing remote payments.”

MTN is charging its subscribers between Rwf30 to Rwf5,000 depending on the amounts being paid through the platform. Taxpayers can pay a minimum of Rwf100 and a maximum of Rwf 2,000,000 on a daily basis.

With this new innovation, taxpayers will be able to have their payments cleared, processed and credited to the RRA account in real-time.

How it is done

To access the service, subscribers must dial *182#, select Pay Bill, select RRA payment, enter their reference number and type in their Mobile Money PIN to complete the payment.

By using this service, it is hoped that it would further expand the digital financial ecosystem, and potentially offer revenue growth.

According to a recent statement from MTN, about 85% of its subscriber base is registered on Mobile Money.

Rwanda counts over 70% of population using mobile phones and about 30 % using internet in their different activities with now over three telecommunication companies working in Rwanda.

Rwanda Revenue Authority plans to extend similar initiative to other telecom services to facilitate the now quicker and efficient tax payment process.