31 Mar 2016

Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) is still not collecting all the tax and customs revenue that it should be getting. 

The revenue services commissioner, Mr Ken Morris said they faced  constraints in collecting  the optimum tax and customs revenue that could be collected.

The BURS 2015 annual report on the commissioner general’s review states the constraints as  inadequate capacity to undertake more enforcement activities to cover all areas in the country, low levels of understanding on the importance of tax among the public which translates into low compliance levels and the lack of an enterprise risk management function for increased efficiency in collection.

However, Mr Morris said  efforts to address the constraints continue so as to increase efficiencies and to achieve more with limited resources available.

Mr Morris noted that during 2014/15 BURS introduced e-filing for VAT as a way of improving service and reducing the burden on tax payers. He, however, said there has been a slow uptake of the use of e-service as most taxpayers continue to file manually.

He said BURS has embarked on a campaign to encourage more tax payers to utilise the e-services projects which would also see other tax types being included.

“BURS still experiences lack of proper office space, accommodation, and infrastructure at some of the service centres, regional offices and border posts, which has a negative impact on employees’ motivation and productivity,” he stated.

Mr Morris also noted that there were administrative and logistical challenges relating to the maintenance of border post facilities, adding that aggressive initiatives for the development of infrastructure and planned outsourcing of maintenance would address the issues over the remaining years of the strategic plan.

Mr Morris said performance during 2014/15 had been satisfactory as the organisation fulfilled its core mandate of revenue mobilisation in spite of all the constraints affecting its operations. He also noted that revenue collected not only met but surpassed the target set by the government.

“The success achieved during the year would not have been possible without the contribution of all BURS employees and cooperation from tax payers and other stakeholders,” he stated.

He added that BURS remained committed to continuously improve customer service standards. He noted that 2014/15 was the first financial year in which the new funding arrangement was implemented, adding that a number of major projects were started and were expected to enhance the ability of the organisation to better execute its mandate.

“These include major nationwide infrastructure projects at frontline service points, the commencement of the construction of the BURS head office building, the preparatory process to acquire modern customs and tax IT systems and the transformation agenda with people at its core,” he said. ENDS