African Tax Administration Forum ends in Accra

Accra, June 19, GNA- Mr. Oupa Magashula, Acting Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service, on Friday asked African Tax administrators to forge a united front, in order to strengthen tax mobilisation to ensure minimal loss of revenue to the continent. Mr. Magashula made the call at the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) Steering Group meeting in Accra. The Steering Group comprise of tax Commissioners from seven African countries, including Ghana.

Mr. Magashula expressed regret that some multinational companies, operating in Africa use local resources to advance their enterprises, but fail to pay the needed tax to advance the socio-economic development of host nations.

He said some of these companies deliberately look for countries with weak tax revenue mobilization system to do business in order to "export their profits and import their losses". Mr. Magashula therefore called for collaborative efforts from African countries to clamp down on the activities of such tax-evasive multinationals.

"If we don't co-operate to solve the situation on hand, the poverty threat in the continent will worsen and we will all go down in the economic slum," he cautioned. He called for provisions of treaties and regulations by ATAF member countries to bind such multinationals in order to ensure optimal mobilization of domestic resources of host nations for development. Mr. Magashula said the tax administration forum was critical in addressing the global economic crisis and its negative impact on the continent.

He said lack of regulation in the financial sector was one of the causes of the global crisis, but expressed the hope that co-operation on the part of ATAF member countries would help address the issue. Major Daniel Ablorh-Quarcoo (RTD), Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, expressed the need for Ghana to utilise its resources judiciously "in order to stand on its feet." "When we are able to mobilize resources on our own to solve the problem that we have, then donor nations can be free," he said. At the last year's international conference on taxation, held in Pretoria, South Africa, the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation (OEDC) and GTZ, (German Agency for Technical Co-operation), tasked the steering group to establish ATAF in order to help in tax revenue mobilization in Africa.

OECD is an international organization that provides the setting for governments to compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices and co-ordinate domestic and international policies. 19 June 09