23 Aug 2016

The Selebi Phikwe community has embraced the E-services introduced by Botswana Revenue Services (BURS) as it has brought efficiency and accuracy in managing taxes.

Speaking during the facilitation workshop the vice president Business Botswana Mr Palalani Moitlhobogi said the main aim of the workshop was to equip members to comply with all applicable tax laws and those who are not members to join and play active roles.

He also noted that the E-service is a strategy that will eliminate manual work which in many cases is prone to human error and reduces long queues at BURS offices for service as it provides immediate access to data, transparency, consistency and integrity.

“The service is available 24 hours seven days a week, you need not to queue and zero commuting which leads to less traffic,'' he added.

The acting regional manager for  BURS in Selebi Phikwe Mr Emmanuel Babusane said the E-services is a welcome development as previously  they used to experience an influx of tax payers at their offices when submitting  tax returns.

He said   the introduction of E-service will eliminate long queues at the BURS offices. He said the online service is an efficient method which showed positive results in countries such as  South Africa, Malaysia and Mauritius which are developing countries and has also proven to be efficient.

“One will be able to create and view his or her file at any point in time. The system is more accurate than manual payment,” he said.

Ms Sinah Teemane who is  director at Good Samaritan Association appreciated the service as it will help them as the NGO to pay their tax returns in time with ease as most NGO’s and religious associations are always behind when paying tax returns.

“It is our responsibility as organisations to pay taxes to the country as that will help to keep a clear report for our donors to see whether we comply with the tax laws and avoid misplacement of paperwork,” she said.

The Bobonong Enterprise retail owner Mr Nalin Parmar who is based in Bobonong said the service came at the right time and is a relief to them as they will be able to process their transactions while in Bobonong. He noted that previously they had to travel to Selebi Phikwe every time to make submissions at BURS which was costly and time consuming.

“The introduction of the E-service will reduce transport costs and save time,” he said adding that through the new system there will be no miscalculations, no late payments and penalties due to human error. Ends