16 Aug 2022

Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) has been urged to improve the functional efficacy of its Lekgetho Live system.

Lekgetho Live is a tax management and revenue collection system that was implemented last year, to replace the Integrated Tax Management System (ITMS).

The system enables tax payers to register, file returns and pay their dues online.

Stakeholders made the plea during an engagement meeting to exchange ideas on how best BURS could effectively and efficiently serve customers.

They said Lekgetho Live, which was aimed at promoting tax compliance, was failing them, and was instead encouraging many to evade tax.

Business man, Mr John Wellio said they hoped the new system would influence tax compliance, but that was not the case as it always experiencing failure, leading to many submitting returns manually.

He expressed frustration that the system had cost government millions, but was not serving its purpose.

Mr Wellio said some companies were not registered for tax and urged BURS to perfect the system, to achieve intended goals.

“Our country has a great potential for tax collection and I urge BURS management to aggressively introduce other methods to capture companies that are not tax complaint. I have been paying tax for years, while some companies had free rides at our expense,” he lamented.

Mr Wellio challenged BURS to up its game and seek ways to improve efficiency in tax revenue collection and also advised management to consider installing a point of sale system for ease of payment.

He also questioned the self-tax assessment, saying there were loopholes, with some companies not being easily located by tax administrators, while many ended up paying less tax.
Mr Bakang Thekiso from Wilderness Safaris Company concurred that the system was frustrating their efforts to file  returns and pay tax on time. He said the system was not user friendly as it was quick to charge penalties, while reversing the penalties was a challenge.

Mr Thekiso said the system also did not allow them to resubmit returns, if it failed to accept the first submission.

“We need a tax administrator who can control the system and whom we can have conversations with, whenever we experience challenges,” he added.

He also urged BURS to consider investing more resources in the Maun office, as tourism industry was the main tax contributor. Tourism, he said was forever, while minerals, which the country depended on, were diminishing.

Maun Lodge’s Mr Tawanda Mandikate urged BURS to resolve long standing issues such as the director’s fees. He also suggested that BURS should have relationship managers for big companies for easy reconciliation of issues related to tax payment.

In response, Director of Information Technology systems at BURS, Mr Luther Mabona said they were aware of the issues and they were addressing them.

He also said they would soon make a decision on implementation of functionality of directors’ fees, adding that they had relationship managers with 285 companies categorised as big taxpayers.

Mr Mabona revealed that they were also addressing issues of delay in processing refunds and adjustments, adding that it was unfortunate as the issues were attended in Gaborone.

BURS Commissioner General, Ms Jeanette Makgolo noted that plans were afoot to modernise their ICT infrastructure, to enhance tax compliance and effective taxpayer service.

“Plans are underway to audit the system to find out the root cause of the problem, because we suspect that some processes could not been defined well in the system,” she added.

Ms Makgolo revealed that the system was much better, but stressed the need to do a total overhaul to ensure customers get quality service.

She also admitted there was potential for better tax collection, revealing that last year, BURS engaged a consultant who found some flaws, with indications of 60 per cent non-compliance. ENDS