BUJUMBURA December 7th (ABP) – The President of the Republic of Burundi, Evariste Ndayishimiye enhanced with his presence the ceremonies marking the celebration of Taxpayer Day 2022, organized by the Burundian Revenue Office (OBR) under the theme: “Let us proudly pay the taxes and duties due and contribute to the development of the country”.
In his speech, the Head of State thanked the Burundians in the lead, the traders, the economic operators who have already understood the advantage of paying taxes and duties in order to contribute to the development of the country. He deplored the fact that there are those who do not want to change their mentality to contribute to the economic growth of Burundi. He appealed to those who have capital, to create production companies, employment for young people and increase production and export because no country can develop without exports.
President Ndayishimiye took advantage of this opportunity to urge the people in mind the leaders to work hard, to get down to development projects especially in the agriculture and livestock sector so that “every mouth has something to eat and every pocket has money”. He also urged them to cut short any bad behavior such as sale of state land properties, fraud, corruption, theft, economic embezzlement, laziness and other evils, but rather to exploit the potential that God gave to Burundi, to create agro-food industries, tourism, industries in ICT, water, agro-pastoral processing, construction of social housing, …
He asked the Burundian Revenue Office (OBR) to concentrate all its efforts to collect the maximum of taxes and duties to increase the funds that go to the public treasury. He asked OBR staff to work in accordance with the law, avoid theft and corruption.
The Ministry of Finance has in turn been asked to manage these funds rationally, so that taxpayers can see for themselves that the taxes they have paid have been used in works of general interest.
The Ministry of Justice, for its part, has been called upon to closely monitor the functioning of the commercial court in order to protect the rights of both national and foreign economic operators.
The Commissioner General of the OBR, Mr. Jean Claude Manirakiza thanked all taxpayers and provided advice to those who have not yet understood the advantages of paying taxes and duties. He did not fail to specify the progress made by this institution during the 1st quarter of the 2022-2023 financial year, therefore from July 1 to September 30, 2022, where the OBR collected 384.34 billion BIF at the time when last year over the same period, we collected 329.74 billion BIF, an increase of 54.6 billion BIF. He said that new strategies are being put in place to optimize revenue and improve the business climate through quality service. It should be noted that prizes were awarded to five best taxpayers, including KCB bank, which received a prize for ascent with a check for three million BIF. The company Burundi Tabbaco Campany, a businessman who operates the electronic payment of declarations, the company Moulin Mutoyi, as well as a person who helped the OBR to flush out taxpayers who were working illegally, each received a certificate of honor and a check for 2 million BIF.