IMF study spots missing VAT billions

Friday, August 07, 2026 | 440 Views |

On the hunt: The Finance Ministry is plugging revenue leakages in the country PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO

A team from the International Monetary Fund that came to the country last year at the invitation of the Botswana Unified Revenue Service says it found heavy compliance gaps in Value Added Tax, particularly in trade and transportation as well as mining and manufacturing.

The team visited the country between October 27 and November 7 and has passed its findings to the BURS, indicating that key revenues running into millions of pula are going uncollected due to non-compliance.

According to the IMF team, the country’s overall VAT gap trended upward in the period between 2017 and 2024, driven by a growing compliance gap. The VAT gap is the difference between what the BURS could be collecting optimally and what it was actually collecting during that period.

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