Ethiopian Review

Over 22 percent of large tax payers engaged in various businesses declared loss for the first nine months of the current Ethiopian fiscal year, it was learnt.

Large tax payers, which include state-owned enterprises and some private companies, represent the tiny portion of tax payers in the country whereas they contribute 90 percent of the overall tax revenue the tax authority collects, according to information gathered from the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA).

ERCA has collected close to eleven billion birr in tax revenues from large tax payers during the reported first nine months of the current fiscal year although close to a third of them declared loss and a major portion of them registered credits and nil profit for the same period in question. The total amount of tax revenues collected during the first nine months of the current fiscal was over 17.3 billion birr, 12 percent short of the target.

While there are 9,953 large tax payers in the country, it was only1785 of them which declared profits for the review period.

Taken together, the performance of the large tax payers during the reported period was one of its lowest in the last several years and indicates the slowdown in the overall economic activity owing to the global economic downturn, according to industry observers.

- By Hayal Alemayehu | EthiopianReporter