Tax revenues likely to go up - Musoni

KIGALI - As the economy steadily continues to recover from the aftershocks of the global financial crisis, there is hope that the country’s revenue collections will increase in the last 6 months of the 2009/10 fiscal year. According to Finance Minister James Musoni, there are signs that the economy is steadily recovering after a slow start of the calendar year 2009. In reaction to the tax revenues registered by Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), Musoni said that despite the crisis hugely affecting the exports from the country and the service sector becoming less vibrant compared to 2008, there are chances that the tax body will surpass its Rwf360bn target. In the first quarter under the EAC fiscal year, RRA managed to collect Rwf86.2bn, 1bn more than the set target of Rwf85.3bn. “That was a very good performance---I would like to congratulate RRA for the good work done. But also I would like to congratulate the taxpayers for the hard work that characterised the first quarter and the whole year because we are in a very challenging situation with the global financial crisis that has hit us.” “For taxpayers to be able to raise such kind of revenue, I think it is a good accomplishment. It also reflects that the economy is somehow is performing well,” Musoni said in an interview with The New Times. Musoni said that what RRA collected reflects specifically the performance of the customs and value added tax but the broader picture shows that the economy did not perform well in the calendar year 2009. “The first half of the year did slightly better than what we are seeing in the second half of the year, mainly because of the crisis,” “Our exports have not been doing well, hotels and restaurants have not been doing very well and generally the service sector is not as vibrant as it was last year,” Musoni added. He however expressed optimism that if the current recovery trend is sustained throughout 2009 and the first half of 2010, the tax body will achieve or even surpass its Rwf368bn target. Between July and September, the tax body also collected a total of Rwf1.7bn against the set target of Rwf1.5bn in non-tax revenues. Overall, RRA collected a total of Rwf89.6bn, surpassing the set target of Rwf86.7bn by Rwf2.9bn. Ends

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Tax revenues likely to go up - Musoni