Africa-Press – Botswana. Residents of Shakawe have been urged to be tax compliant and to voluntarily submit returns.
The call was made by the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) Commissioner General, Ms Jeanette Makgolo at a stakeholder meeting in Shakawe last week.
Ms Makgolo said BURS saw the need to sensitise Batswana on tax matters to raise awareness, hence the stakeholder engagements and road shows across the country. She said tax is significant as it contributes to the developments of the country to benefit everyone equally regardless of their tax brackets.
Ms Makgolo said Batswana were expected to pay tax voluntarily, therefore should take pride in paying tax as citizens. She said Botswana relied on assistance from international countries pre-independence but has since become liberated post-independence due to tax collection.
Ms Makgolo thanked Batswana who were tax compliant. She also said BURS was in the process of restructuring, which would help address some challenges and shortage of staff in some areas.
For his part, BURS General Manager North, Mr Patrick Mavuma, said BURS advocated for voluntary and timely filing of returns, accuracy of returns and customs declaration.
Mr Mavuma said at times BURS had to use enforcement of tax compliance for people who were non-compliant. He said there were cases of non-complaint people in Okavango.
Mr Mavuma said enforcement is, however, tiring and costly because it required tax auditors, tax investigators and debt collectors. He said people who were taxed were of income bracket of P4 000 and above or P48 000 annually.
Mr Mavuma said people should avoid late filing of returns since it accrued penalties.
He said BURS had online services although some people still lacked knowledge on using the online services. Mr Mavuma said that their wish is to have zero manual submissions.
In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Mutemo Mbambo of Shakawe said people of Okavango have a challenge since the nearest BURS office is in Maun and therefore requested BURS to set up an office in Shakawe.
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