The Director of the Regional Technical Assistance Centre of the International Monetary Fund for West Africa (AFRITAC), Olivier Benon, on Monday in Dakar, Senegal, urged West African countries to introduce reforms aime d at increasing tax rates to enable them raise the resources needed for public in v estments.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of a three-day regional seminar on moderniz ing tax administrations, Benon highlighted the existence of margins of progress i n West Africa in terms of modernization of tax administration particularly in ca p acity building on tax collection.
According to Benon, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMUE) is wor king on the computerization of tax administrations.
He said that tax administrations should endow themselves with modern tools like second-generation reforms so that there would be a better communication between t ax administration and tax payers, and enable small- and medium-sized businesses t o pay their taxes without moving.
The workshop will be the opportunity for the general directors of the country me mbers of the AFRITAC to deepen their consultation so as to facilitate the exchan g e of ideas on the achievements to be preserved concerning the reforms of tax adm i nistrations and the factors of success to lead the change.
They will also discuss the instruments of analysis and of diagnosis to identify the stages of modernization and administrations to better meet the challenges in
terms of mobilization of tax income and expectations of tax payers.
Created in 2003, AFRITAC, whose headquarters are in Bamako, Mali, has jurisdicti on over countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
