The development will start as a pilot project with some 500 companies before it is rolled out to the public.Acting BURS commissioner general Segolo Lekau announced at a BOCCIM consultative workshop at the Gaborone Sun on Wednesday that electronic filing of taxes would be introduced in stages in Botswana, with the final one billed for the end of March 2014.Lekau said stakeholders overwhelmingly advised that VAT, being the most challenging of all taxes, be the first to be e-filed.BURS would then roll out e-filing to withholding tax, especially PAYE, followed by corporate tax and individual tax, in that order.He said the electronic system will go a long way in eliminating manual forms which result in capturing wrong information, wrong amounts, as the customer will be the one inputting data.Lekau added that customers will have immediate access to their statements.
"Immediately when you change your bank account and address, you can now update online and avoid instances of cheque fraud, refunds being sent to wrong addresses, or wrong accounts," he said.Lekau said the office of the e-government controller has been putting in funds to help get the BURS on the electronic platform, and added that they have a secure payment feature to enable customers to pay using VISA cards and internet banking. He said customers will get their tax clearance certificates in no time.He announced that Barclays bank has joined the BURS e-filing platform, adding that other major banks are in the process of following suit.Lekau hailed the new innovation saying it will also reduce instances of paying the BURS with bouncing cheques. He said the BURS will also pay refunds electronically, thereby greatly reducing operational costs.Speaking at the same forum, BURS director of IT Lebesani Mosweu lamented that Botswana was lagging behind in the introduction of e-filing while the rest of the world is advanced in adopting ICT to make paying tax possible at the click of a button.
