Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed on Friday urged Ethiopians to develop a positive mindset towards their tax responsibility as citizens.

Abiy, who was officiating the launch of the National Tax Revenue remarked that taxation is one of the pillars of a country’s civilisation and development.

‘‘We need to stop treating tax evaders as smart and instead consider them for who they are, foolish people who have little regard for their country and future wellbeing of their children,’‘ the prime minister said.

We need to stop treating tax evaders as smart and instead consider them for who they are, foolish people who have little regard for their country and future wellbeing of their children.

The prime minister who said Ethiopia’s tax to GDP ratio currently stands at 10.7 percent, urged tax payers to develop an enhanced mindset of tax payment responsibility through which they demonstrate their love of country and family.

‘‘It is vital to achieve durable peace and justice, defeat poverty, build capacity of the country and ensure social security protection.’‘

The minister of Revenues, Adanech Abebe, warned that the challenges faced in collecting revenue could hamper the country’s target of ‘becoming a middle income country by 2025’.

Improving tax collection

Abebe said the government has set up a ministerial taskforce to address the bottlenecks in the tax collection system.

Members of the task force are drawn from Revenues and Finance ministries, National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), National Planning Commission, and other government offices.

The year-long movement organised by the Ministry of Revenues aims to highlight the role of a just tax revenue collection system in realizing Ethiopia’s ascendancy to middle income status by 2025.

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