DTC Holds the Second ENTR Seminar
Ethiopian Civil Service University, Department of Tax and Customs Administration, held its second seminar on Tax Compliance on July 18, 2018 at ECSU Development learning Center. Disseminating tax knowledge was the primary objective of the seminar and two papers entitled “Towards Integrating Antecedents of Voluntary Tax Compliance” and “Tax compliance Attitude of the Rural Farmers” were presented by Dr. Lemessa Bayissa and by Dr. Azime Adem respectively.
On the seminar the presenters pointed out that tax serves various functions in the economy. Citizens on the other hand do not pay taxes willingly. The consequence of tax evasion results in budget deficit. Government and people must play their mutual responsibly towards the benefit the community the presenters noted. Policy that support productivity, growth and formalization will increase income of the critical mass of people with positive effects in tax revenue performance and the government can increase tax compliance by providing goods and services that citizen demand in a more efficient accessible manner. Improving the productivity of agriculture, agriculture formalization and linking agricultural products to value added agro-processing in industrial sector can unlock the structural constraints tax revenue growth. Government must also be fair in terms of rewards and distributing the tax benefits. The issue of trends in tax avoiding attitudes means of stimulating tax compliance and other related issues were raised by the presenters and the house thoroughly discussed on them.
On his concluding remarks Dr. Lemma Gudissa ECSU Academic Affairs Vice President thanked the participants. He also expressed ESCU’s readiness to contribute its share to the country. Other ECSU staff members are also expected to contribute their share by participating in consecutive seminars which will be organized by ECSU in the future, Dr. Lemma added .
The ETRN was launched in September 2017 with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, through the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD).The purpose of the ETRN is to support the generation and exchange of tax knowledge in Ethiopia, with stakeholders including tax practitioners and researchers from Ethiopian and international organisations.