Countries with few resources need to mobilise tax revenue

Burundi’s tax revenue has almost doubled from 300 billion Burundi francs ($202 million) in 2009 to a projected 545 billion francs ($367 million) this year.

Pamella Sittoni spoke to Kieran Holmes, the Commissioner General, Office Burundais des Recettes — Burundi’s revenue authority— on how he cracked down on tax avoidance and changed mindsets in a country still coming to terms with the rule of law after the 2008 civil war.

You helped build the Rwandan revenue authority and now you are setting up one for Burundi. What has been your experience in both cases?

My role in Rwanda was advisor to the Commissioner General and project manager for the DfID project from 2002 to 2010, while in Burundi as Commissioner General, my responsibility is more political. In both countries we were working with government agencies to establish revenue authorities, which takes six to eight years.

In Rwanda, we helped the government computerise its Customs authorities and drafted new income tax and income procedure laws, trained staff and put up a revenue administration building.

In Burundi, people are more willing to engage with information technology compared with Rwanda. Things that were achieved in 24 -27 months in Rwanda were achieved in 12 months in Burundi. But in both countries, we are on the right path.

Are the two revenue authorities more efficient than those of other EAC partner states?

Yes, because when you are the new kid on the block you want to prove yourself. Burundi and Rwanda are emerging and determined to prove themselves and all the five revenue authorities will benefit if there is healthy competition.

What are the other East African countries not doing right?

In Rwanda and Burundi, we are designing a modern revenue structure based on International Monetary Fund advice. We are also linking our human resource policies and procedures to a pay performance reward structure for revenue administration, which could be of great help to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania at no cost.

However, the revenue authorities in the region need to interact with private regional organisations like Trade Mark East Africa and engage development partners as an East African body in order to grow their economies at the same rate for integration.

The East African Community Secretary General has billed Burundi as one of the best examples of a good revenue authority. What is behind this success?

The credit goes to the Burundian government. The country had the vision of being the first Francophone country to have a revenue authority. All the other Francophone countries, like Togo, use the old format where the department of taxes and Customs falls under the ministry of finance.

For a state to finance itself, it has to factor in how to raise revenue to build its economy in the absence of high value resources like oil. Burundi is doing this through revenue mobilisation.

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