Through eyes of a journalist

BURS leakages aid tax evaders

While the government has gone all out in a bid to increase tax collection by adjusting various taxes early this year, I thought of just how every day I see how some businesses, especially foreign-owned operate. We always hear of them robbed of millions of pula in their homes or premises; they prefer cash transactions even for huge amounts. Couldn’t that cushion Batswana from all the taxes? Well, a highly placed expert opened up and condemned the move to make Batswana bear the costs of the tax-collecting organ’s inefficiencies. There is a need to reinforce the systems and processes of the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS). It is said that a lot of the foreign-owned businesses have used these gaps to master the art of tax evasion, siphoning off millions of pula out of the country daily.