Rwanda Revenue Authority is set to launch an online system to file and pay taxes in a bid to reduce tax processing and payment costs.

This was revealed by the Director of Taxpayer services, Gerard Nkusi Mukubu, in an exclusive interview at his offices at Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA).

The newly introduced online filling and payment of taxes is expected to begin by November this year in two piloting phases that will begin with e-filling while e-payment would follow a month later.

Mukubu said that the project would reduce the overheads on taxpayers to file their tax returns and make tax payments more easily by using the internet at their offices.

 "We are optimistic that this new online filling and payment of taxes will solve many problems including long queues, and the burden of spending more time and money by a taxpayer in the process of filling tax returns” Mukubu noted.

According to the official, the project also seeks to ease record keeping practices by tax payers.

The system has only five steps; the taxpayer will have to view  an online tax return, fill it and confirm  the correctness of the return and then submits it to RRA, after that he/she will have to  select the bank for e-payment and immediately  a payment receipt proof and reference identity number will be issued as confirmation of payment.

Rwanda is ranked as one of the top reformers in doing business in the sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank’s doing Business Report 2011.

The ranking requires RRA to move faster in reducing the cost of paying taxes by introducing various initiatives, Mukubu said.

"Tax revenues remain a sustainable source of financing for Rwanda’s development; the online tax payment system comes to address the need to reduce the cost of processing and paying taxes by taxpayers” he explained.

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