Africa-Press – Eswatini. In a bid to assist businesses that have misgivings surrounding their tax compliance status, Business Eswatini (BE) has established a Tax Confession Window (TCW).
BE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nathi Dalmini said the TCW was an initiative that would give an opportunity to businesses with misgivings surrounding their tax compliance status in Eswatini to come forward. “We, at Business Eswatini then help with getting their house in order so as to restore their compliance status,” said Dlamini. The CEO was speaking during the Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS) inaugural Client Appreciation Day, which was aimed at recognising and rewarding members of the Business Community who contribute to the fiscus and are fully compliant with legislation administered by the ERS.
Opportunity
Dlamini said this window also provides an opportunity for new taxpayers whose operations have entered the taxable bracket. He then encouraged all businesses to take advantage of the trade facilitation platforms like the Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) Programme, the electronic platform for application and issuance of advance rulings, the application for the electronic certificate of origin and not least the BE TCW. On another note, Dlamini said their relationship with the ERS used to be fraught with challenges until recently when they discovered that they actually played for the same team. He said as a result of this discovery, they have now collaborated on a number of initiatives – all of which were primarily geared towards improving the tax regime as well as the business environment for which I am responsible – at least in the context of BE.
The CEO mentioned that BE, together with ERS and the Ministry of Finance had partnered in the Tax Indaba only a few months ago as well as participated in talks that finally led to the extension of the Tax Debt Relief programme. “We are also actively involved in the National Trade Facilitation Committee which I believe is a pivotal programme for the business community,” said Dlamini. He said it was equally notable that the establishment of the Eswatini Trade Information portal led to the realisation of the now 24-hour border operation at Ngwenya-Oshoek Border Gate; as well as the improvement of the AEO Programme alongside the electronic advanced rulings system.
Occurred
Dlamini further said worth noting was that most of these initiatives, if not all, had occurred only within the past two years. He said this was telling, the change from Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) to ERS was also announced about two years ago. “Here we are today (Friday), witnessing for the very first time, a Taxpayer Appreciation Day, which further confirms that indeed, the taxman is now a service-oriented administrator,” he said. On behalf of the private sector, Dlamini heaped accolades on ERS, the Ministry of Finance and the entire government administration for their achievements, which he suspected would have been difficult without the collaboration with all stakeholders.
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