Finance Minister James Musoni on Monday urged all large and small enterprises to develop the capacity of their accountants so as to eliminate cases of improper reporting of accounts which has led to tax frauds and penalties.

Speaking in a meeting organised by Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) for large tax payers at Prime holdings, Musoni underscored the need for professional and competent accountants, as the only way through which businesses can develop. He advised that each enterprise should at least get two professional accountants.

"Having incompetent accountants exposes a business to penalties from tax collectors due to improper reporting which can also lead to eventual insolvency,” warned Musoni.

He also urged enterprises to start hiring tax consultants to verify whether their books are balancing as required by the tax collectors to avoid penalties.

"If paying for them in schools is the problem, you should deduct that money from what you are supposed to pay in taxes, there is no problem as long as the enterprise has got qualified and competent accountants,” stressed Musoni.

During her speech, the RRA Commissioner General Mary Baine underscored the relevancy of dialogue and consistency in the day to day dealings between tax payers and collectors.

She called upon enterprises to work towards creating good partnerships with the tax body in a bid to create a rapport and joint mechanisms of how to improve doing business through increasing efficiency and proper reporting.

In his speech, the president of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Rwanda (ICPAR), Peter Rutaremara, emphasised the need to further strengthen and professionalize the field of accountancy.

"Accountancy is a key sector in economic development…there is no way a company can expand without transparently and competently preparing accounts implying that all enterprises should train their accountants to help step up this profession,” said Rutaremara

He urged the enterprises to make use of institutions like the School of Business and Banking (SFB) and Kigali Institute of Management (KIM), to have their accountants trained because they offer the required courses.

He however declared that ICPAR has a goal of locally producing those courses and setting relevant examinations similar to those set on the international scale in the near future.

The Private Sector Federation ({PSF) was tasked to implement the programme of training local accountants to also design an inclusive methodology detailing how it can be successfully achieved.  

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