Tax payers express their confusion on the implementation of tax amnesty that targets to mitigate the coronavirus economic effects.
The Council of Ministers recently issued a directive to lift a tax claim in two separate schemes that is based on the period of the tax arrears.
The first group listed under the tax dispute stayed until a period of 2015. In this group the government closed the case and called the tax payers to access their clearance. On the other group the tax payers that are in dispute with Ministry of Revenue (MoR) for tax arrears from 2016 to 2019 are beneficiary to settle their outstanding tax and exempted the interest payment and penalties.
In the second option tax payers have got two types of option for their settlement. The first one is settled the 25 percent at an initial stage and the balance within a year, while the second option is that companies will settle the 90 percent at a time and get a relief for the ten percent.
According to tax payers that Capital talked said that they are facing challenges when they try to settle their payment.
“A tax branch that we are reporting told us that we should settle 100 percent of the tax immediately against the scheme that the Council of Ministers issued,” a tax payer told Capital.
The tax payer said that they talked to Tesfaye Tule, State Minister of MoR, to claim their case while they got a response that the detail procedural document of the directive will not allow them to go with the new scheme.
“They told me that the new relief is given for those who finalized their process before the issuance date, which was May 6, of the directive, and due to that we settled all the outstanding taxes at a time,” claimed the tax payer.
According to one of the tax payers, their company planned to pay the 25 percent first and the balance in a year time. “They told us we can only be exempted from the interest and penalty but should pay 100 percent immediately.”
The tax payers claimed that they are confused by the tax authority’s decision and the directive given by the government.
“As the behavior of my business and the current situation I could not settle all the 100 percent of the taxes,” a tax payer, who hoped to pay their duty in different stages, expressed frustration.
The government stated that its tax revenue would be shrinking due to the virus. Recently Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance, said that government will lose 11 billion birr in the months before the end of the budget year.
“The government said that the tax and non tax collection in the coming months of the budget year will shrink by 11 billion birr, while the indirect tax collection for March has dropped by close to 15 percent compared with the same period of last year,” Ahmed said.
In March the direct tax collection growth rate was limited to 1.6 percent, while the average growth rate pre COVID 19 months was 22.8 percent, according to Ahmed.
Tax payers express frustration on the implementation of tax amnesty
WHAT IS GOING ON?
Our decaying global order is ominously signaling rapid collapse. To the uninitiated, the current various happenstances that are impacting the global order seem sporadic and unrelated to each other. As always, connecting these symptomatic dots is a bit tricky. The ability to bring the seemingly stand alone events together, with a view to make a coherent sense, requires, amongst other things, a worldview that is sufficiently detached from the existing lie based politics, debt based economics, identity obsessed social relations, (racial, religious, etc.) and an intellectual/emotional strength that forces a healthy distance from the overbearing techno-sphere. Obviously, this is easily said than done. Be that as it may, one can still attempt a heuristic approach to the generalized problematic by starting to rethink perplexing events/situations afresh. ‘What is going on?’
In late 2019, a microbe made a conspicuous entrance in China. Its presence was immediately felt, not only in China, but also across the seas, in places like Iran and Italy. By early 2020, the whole world was traumatized and infected by the invisible bioterrorist, so to speak. Panicking beyond comprehension, countries after countries closed their borders and implemented either partial or complete locked-downs. As a result, economies were shattered, literally. Social distancing caused more than psychological problems. To alleviate the economic mess, governments started to print, yet again, massive phony money. For example, the US government printed trillions of dollars, and handed it to the power wielding connected oligarchs and their corporations. A little bit, relatively speaking, managed to trickle down to the sheeple (human mass) as well as to small businesses. At the same time, tax revenue came to a screeching halt and unemployment reached a record high! Printing money with abundance, as a sole panacea, is bound to cause havoc, sooner or later. One cannot help but ask: ‘What is going on’?
Unprecedented freedom curtailing/constraining laws were swiftly promulgated by nation-states all over the world, within weeks. There was no serious debate anywhere, about the whole issue, as the narrative was steered by the DS (Deep States) and its subservient politicos in power. The scared politicians rushed to appease their bosses (the DS) by upholding the preeminence of ‘paid science’ over actual science! Capable scientists were muzzled and were disallowed to openly communicate/express their findings and considered opinions. Facts from world-class scientists/institutions (Stanford University, etc.) about actual data on Covid-19 were out rightly dismissed, while phony modeling was feverishly promoted. So far and the obvious manipulations notwithstanding, Covid-19 is not the microbe monster as the DS wants it to be. CDC (Center for Disease Control, USA), Swiss Policy Research and other luminaries in the relevant fields (Nobel Laureates, etc.) have consistently and emphatically stated that the death rate from Covid-19 is only around 0.2%, i.e., about the same or even lower than the death rate from normal flu, but to no avail, conveyance wise. Yeah, ‘What is going on’?
The whole world is mobilized and galvanized to fight Covid-19, with plenty of money to wit. In the US, if someone dies on the account of Covid-19, the hospital/nursing home will get around $13,000. If the patient was on the ventilator before his/her passing, the hospital/nursing home gets an additional USD 29,000. No wonder many institutions decided to revise their death certificates. Death from Covid-19 as reported by DS and affiliates was and still remains highly exaggerated. Ditto other nations. Testing, testing, testing, is still the mantra of WHO as well as the status quo. Take note; the world does not routinely/widely test for the good old flu, so why all the rage about universal testing for this microbe, which has even a lower fatality rate than the normal flu? Even in countries where the virus is stubbornly unavailable, the call for ‘testing’ is persistent. We sense something fishy might be on the offing in the usually dormant world of bio-weaponry. For example, Covid-19 seems to have significant negative bias towards humans with pigmentation. One wonders; what the DS (Deep State) and its subservient are up to? Seriously: ‘What is going on’?
The US police routinely kill about four people on a daily basis. Since the US is a highly race/ethnicity obsessed society, no matter what the unfolding situation is, the event has to be color tinted, per force! More than anything, identity politics (ethnicity, racial groupings, religious affiliations, etc.,) form the basis of the entrenched ideologies of the US political classes, if we may say so. These dominant tendencies, always loaded with all kinds of insinuations, seem to be under interrogation today. The Minneapolis incident was just the spark that propelled the oppressed multitude to action; blacks, whites, etc.! The establishment might not see the rage behind the protestors, all protestors (not only the blacks), as they are pathetically fixated only on the looting jamboree. Recall; Occupy Movement & Yellow Vests, had their own strategies, which proved difficult to sustain. The Occupy Movement was systemically decimated. The leaders, nay the coordinators, that were heavily relying on the Internet for all and sundry, became easy preys to the highly sophisticated DS (think Snowden’s surveillance states). Some were framed (drugs, weapons, …the usual) others were sickened, suicided and accidented, if you know what we mean! The ‘Yellow Vests’ (YV) learned from Occupy Movement and changed their tactics. As it stands, the YV congregate in town centers on weekends, without leaders, coordinators, etc. From the point of view of the DS, this tactic has to be contained, if not eliminated, thus the new laws forbidding congregation, compliment of Covid-1984! How will the ongoing apprising in the West, mostly in the US unfold? ‘What is going on’?
During the Vietnam War the US propaganda machine was unrelenting. Here is one narrative that was pushed by the DS at the time: ‘unless we fight socialism in Southeast Asia now, we will have to fight it here (in the USA) later.’ In 1970, a perplexed artist wrote a song about Vietnam that went viral, globally. Ironically, this black person was killed by his own father, in the safety of his own home. Admitted or not, the USA, as a society, has always been and still is quite violence prone!
‘What is going on’?
Mother, mother
There’s too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There’s far too many of you dying
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some loving here today, yeah
Father, father
We don’t need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some loving here today
[Chorus]
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what’s going on
What’s going on
Yeah, what’s going on
Ah, what’s going on”
Marvin Gaye. Good Day!
Enat Bank secures plot for its future headquarter
Enat Bank becomes a pioneer to secure a plot at the heart of Addis Ababa under the new initiative of the City Administration.
The city administration and Ethiopian Bankers Association (EBA) agreed to be provided with plots for the financial institutions under the aim for the later to construct high rise buildings.
After the agreement banks had tabled their proposal to the administration to receive the plots. Currently, Enat Bank has become the first who secured the land under the initiative.
Wondwossen Teshome, President of Enat Bank, stated that they secured a plot that is almost half hectare, located around the National Bank of Ethiopia where other banks are constructing their headquarters.
“If you want to get a plot from private owners at the stated area it might be very expensive and that forced us to hold our plan to secure and construct head office in the past,” Wondwossen told Capital.
He said that the bank has received 4,800 square meters in front of Yobek Building around NBE that he stated as a very big plot.
“Since the initiative was introduced we have gone all the way to get a plot and by chance we have secured a vacant plot at the area,” the President explained. According to Wondwossen, the bank has already settled all required lease payments and other appropriate fees and secured the land.
“In the past we have been looking for opportunities to get a plot for the construction of our headquarters,” he stated.
According to the plan, the bank has targeted to construction a 35-storey building, while detailed procedures will be done in the future.
“As a theory the building will include special facilities like kindergarten, women training center and a facility for Enat Foundation,” Wondwossen says adding “as Enat we have different special initiatives like women empowerment and other features dealing with women.”
The bank have already estimates that the new upcoming building will consume two billion birr, “in the past we allocated one billion birr but now the construction cost has skyrocketed and due to that our budget increased to two billion,” the President explained.
In relation with COVID 19 effect Enat, which is one of the youngest bank in the financial industry, cancelled the interest rate for hotel and tourism sectors for three months starting from June besides delaying loan settlement for the stated period.
“Meanwhile we did not disclosed for media the bank is under study to see the effect of COVID 19 for other sectors to take possible relief measures for customers,” Wondwossen said.
Under the initiative of the City Administration other banks are also expected to secure plots at the place. Recently the City Administration has given a green light for Dashen Bank to secure 900 square meter plot around the area. Dashen has targeted to construct 30+-storey building on the stated area.
In November 2017, Dashen inaugurated its 21-storey building headquarters. The current headquarters is built up on an area of 2,700 square meters, while the total area is 4,200 square meters. The remaining plot in the back will be included under the additional 900 square meters that the city administration transferred for further development, according to the plan of Dashen.
The City Administration and EBA have also agreed with the administration to work with the private banks on its municipality operations.
UN to explore role of science and technology policies in covid-19 recovery
Science, technology and innovation (STI) policies will play a key role not only in post-COVID-19 recovery plans, but also in the decade of action to deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Shaping these future policies is a key focus of the UN’s Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) virtual meeting from 10 to 12 June.
The online meeting is a condensed edition of the annual session of the CSTD, which acts as the UN’s focal point for the analysis of science, technology and innovation for sustainable development.
“Science, technology and innovation provide a shining light to help us navigate and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Shamika N. Sirimanne, head of the CSTD Secretariat.
“We’ll use this meeting to discuss how we can foster international collaboration in science and technology, not only to tackle and recover from the virus, but also to address other pressing sustainable development concerns, which range from climate change to inequality,” she added.
Sirimanne said STI-related activities should be incorporated in recovery packages. Not only can this spur economic activity, but it can also enhance the resilience of countries to cope with future crises.
The CSTD has consistently emphasized that technological change is essential to achieving all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic provides daily examples of how harnessing frontier technologies can make the difference between life and death.
However, despite the well-documented advantages that frontier technologies offer in solving a vast range of problems, for many people around the world, their benefits remain a distant prospect.
Scaling technologies so that everyone, including the most vulnerable in our global community, can benefit from affordable and unrestricted access, requires a coordinated approach to initiating global cooperation for scientific advancement and resource mobilization.
International collaboration in STI is urgently needed in three areas: research cooperation, capacity building and official development assistance (ODA), to ensure that emerging technologies are developed with inclusiveness and sustainability in mind.
STI-related ODA to developing countries has stagnated over the last decade. In 2010, it was $4.7 billion, compared with $4.8 billion in 2017. Less than 4% of the ODA commitments to developing countries were reported under sectors associated with STI in 2017.
The levels of ODA dedicated to these sectors must increase for developing countries and particularly least developed countries to build the STI capacities for achieving the SDGs.
The meeting will also tackle the topical issue of space technologies and the question of international collaboration to address STI capacity constraints.
Emerging space programmes in many developing countries require long-term policy thinking to deliver their full potential development impact.
For example, the tide of raw data that flows from satellites requires filtration, refinement and modeling to translate it into usable information.
Forecasting models require huge computing capacities and appropriate skills in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
