The Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) has surpassed the revenue collection target in the 2022 tax collection period.
From Income Tax and VAT collections, BURS collected P35.1 billion exceeding the P34.8 billion target at the end of December 2022.
This was said in a press briefing by BURS Commissioner General, Jeanette Makgolo and Board Chair Dr Lesedi Senatla on Tuesday.
Board Chair, Dr Senatla said BURS carries a critical mandate of the development of this country and therefore the wellbeing of Batswana and sustainability of the growth of the economy depend on it.
He said he is aware that for some time the government revenue was not consistently keeping up with expenditure demand, especially at the height of Covid-19 pandemic.
“BURS is called to action even more in the circumstances and has been assigned the responsibility to collect tax revenue and other revenues of P46.433 billion for the year 2022/2023 and suspect the figure will be higher in the year 2023/2024. In Botswana on average, imports of the value of P70 billion and exports of P60 billion are processed annually. We facilitate timely importation of raw materials and machinery necessary to stimulate growth of industries in the economy and this lead to employment creation and reduction of poverty level,” said Senatla
Commissioner General Makgolo said they noticed an interest especially on the issue of tax evasion by certain companies hence BURS invited the media for a chat. She said it is important to engage the media as a critical stakeholder to explain themselves regarding the information they are at liberty to share and the limits and constraints.
Speaking on BURS ongoing restructuring, Makgolo noted that they are on transformation and re-aligning the skills. She said their organisation has been assessed and has diagnostic reports from IMF, World Customs Organisation and other local stakeholders which has indicated that BURS personnel is below par.
“We are still at an initial stage because procuring the consultant or resources that are going to help us to do the restructuring has been slow. We have new procurement law that we need to follow and hopefully next month we will have someone on the ground doing the consultation,” said Makgolo
