10 Dec 2019

The number of companies that were granted some tax relief, pardons or waivers since 2008 for income tax is 1 117 with an average of 107 per annum, says the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Dr Thapelo Matsheka.

Dr Matsheka who was answering a parliamentary question, added that for VAT it was 60 204 with a yearly average of 5 473. He said this was out of the 124 296 companies registered with Botswana Unified Revenue Service to date.

He said the tax register that BURS kept was not maintained on the basis of whether owners of the tax-registered companies were indigenous Batswana or not. He, therefore, said he was not able to state the number of companies owned by indigenous Batswana that were given waivers.

He said his ministry and the Commissioner-General were empowered by Section 62 of the VAT Act to consider tax relief or pardon or waivers for any taxpayer. Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse had asked the minister to give an update on tax relief or pardons or waivers since 2008 and in particular to state the number of companies which had got tax relief, pardons or waivers. Mr Keorapetse also wanted to know how many were owned by indigenous Batswana and legal provisions which gave effect to the decision and the rationale for such decisions. ENDS