LRA to host Tax Expo

MASERU – THE Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) will hold a Tax Expo at ’Manthabiseng Convention Centre on December 4th and 5th.
The Expo is intended to provide a platform for stakeholders to discuss and make inputs into tax policy formulation and tax administration with a view to unlocking the potential of both Tax Policy and Administration as drivers of economic growth and development.

This initiative is in line with the LRA’s Strategy, REA AHA (We are Building), which calls for greater collaboration with stakeholders and clients.
“The current regional economic challenges, manifested by volatile and generally declining SACU revenues, underscore the need for our country to do a much better job of domestic resource mobilization to finance the much needed development expenditure,” LRA Acting Head Stakeholder , Management, Marketing and Public Relations Pheello Mphana said.
Over and above the well-known, and indeed crucial, mandate of collecting tax revenue for the government, the LRA is also mandated by Parliament to advise the government on tax policies.
The LRA said in carrying out its primary tax administration work, it is also exposed to the realities of the impact of policy on all facets of the economy.
It said it is keen to facilitate feedback between tax administration, on the one hand, and policy and legislation sectors on the other.

The LRA said the Tax Expo will allow all relevant stakeholders to share their views on how tax administration, policy and tax laws could be leveraged as instruments of economic development.
Scheduled at the beginning of the annual fiscal planning cycle, the Expo seeks to enable a conversation that will inform the LRA’s advice to the Ministry of Finance as the ministry decides on its tax policy priorities in the next year.

Moreover, the conversation will also provide the LRA itself with feedback on how it discharges the tax administration function that it has been entrusted with, which includes suggesting appropriate legislative amendments.

The Expo, dubbed “Lekhetho Khotla”, will this year focus on the role of taxation in tackling Lesotho’s current economic development challenges.
Mphana said above and beyond financing the government’s fiscal budget through both domestic and frontier resource mobilisation, taxes are also effective instruments of economic policy.
The Expo will among others cover the following themes:

l Lesotho Fiscal Policy and the Role of Taxation
l Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)
l Safeguarding Lesotho’s Tax Base by Curbing Illicit Financial Flows
l Sharing Economic Rent in the Extractive Industry

l Deepening the Role of Tax Agents in Enhancing Tax Compliance
l Building a Culture of Voluntary Compliance in Lesotho

Staff Reporter