A betrayal of our posterity

A raft of laws have either been passed or are due in Parliament, which, when read together, aim to plug holes in our tax administration through which an estimated P8 billion has been flowing away from national coffers.

Through practices such as money-laundering, trade mis-invoicing and the abuse of transfer pricing, corporates and individuals in Botswana have perfected the art of sidestepping BURS over the years, assisted by tax advisories both locally and abroad. Money-laundering involves concealing the source or purpose of “dirty” money while trade mis-invoicing is a practice of falsifying import or export values to trick the taxman.

Transfer pricing, a term most Batswana are ignorant about, involves transactions between related entities. The violation comes when the value or terms of these transactions is manipulated to lower a tax liability. While the concepts involved may appear complex and removed from ordinary Batswana, some of these practices have become so commonplace that they are no longer thought of as unethical by perpetrators.

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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