Central African Republic advances with tax digitalisation
The Central African Republic (CAR) is moving on with a critical push to modernise its tax administration through digitalisation, which marks a significant step towards streamlining processes and enhancing efficiency and transparency in public revenue collection.
To encourage adoption of the new e-tax system, the CAR government initiated a series of workshops this week to provide training and information to tax agents, managers, and taxpayers on how to effectively use and manage the e-tax system’s features.
The e-tax platform allows for electronic tax filing and payments. It is backed by the European Union (EU) under a 24-month service contract aimed at improving CAR's public finance management system.
According to Jean Marc Dewerpe, the EU's head of cooperation in CAR, tax digitalisation is critical for increasing public revenue collection, improving transparency, and combating tax fraud.
“That is why we are supporting digitisation to improve performance and tax compliance in the area of internal resource mobilisation, which should provide the country with the means to operate and finance its development more independently,” said Dewerpe.
Romain Kobondit Douathe, director general of taxes and state properties, added that the government is firmly committed to digitising the way it functions.
“The objective is clear: To increase the mobilisation of domestic resources to finance priority development programmes,” he said, adding that the registration and e-filing modules were fully operational.