HUYE – Taxpayers have been tasked to embrace the use of available technologies while paying or declaring their taxes to the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA).According to Celestin Bumbakare, the RRA Commissioner for Domestic Taxes, this will prevent taxpayers from wasting much time queuing at their offices.Addressing taxpayers from Huye and Nyamagabe districts on Wednesday, Bumbakare observed that recently, the authority introduced a new system of reducing turnaround time while filling and paying taxes.The new system, dubbed E-Filling, requires users to be connected to the internet to be able to declare their taxes to RRA. With the system, taxpayers open up accounts from RRA regional offices which give them access to the institution’s website.“With this new system, you will be able to fill a tax return from your home or work place, without having to take long hours at our offices as has been the case,” Bumbakare said.“It is important that in this new era of technological advancement we make use of available opportunities to better manage our time and concentrate more on our businesses.”Bumbakare told The New Times that about 400 taxpayers have now embraced the new system countrywide, regretting however that only three payers in Huye district are using it.He said that following a pilot study that was carried out over the last six months, the system proved to be efficient, reliable, quicker and simple to use.He noted that the Rwanda Revenue Authority target is to have each and every taxpayer embrace the e-filling before the end of this year.In a related development, the official disclosed that they are planning to introduce electronic billing machines in a move intended to curb tax evasion countrywide.The machines, named Electronic Tax Registers, will be used to produce invoices for sold goods and immediately relay a message to RRA to announce the transaction hence making it easy to calculate taxes, eventually. According to Bumbakare, the tax body has already acquired 500 machines which are set to be distributed countrywide as part of the pilot phase of the project.Not later than July this year the project will be rolled out to all taxpayers countrywide.“With the adoption of this technology, we intend to improve the transparency of the whole process while making sure that all tax payers fulfil their fiscal obligations”, he said.“The auditing process will also be easy as clear, precise and real information on all effected transactions will be available”.The machine will also help business operators to get exact figures of all their operations on a daily basis, he added.So far, RRA has registered about 60 000 taxpayers countrywide.Speaking to The New Times, business operators welcomed the new electronic systems saying that this way, their business operations will be smoother.“I have been waiting for such innovations. I hope with the new systems, I will spend less time paying and declaring taxes, thus concentrating more time on my business”, observed Jean Paul Amahoro, a restaurant owner.
