Businesspeople in Sofala province, in central Mozambique, are calling for urgent reforms and harmonisation of the tax system, calling for scientific studies to substantiate the changes. The aim is to reduce the financial burden on business activities and stimulate new investments, reported the newspaper O País.
Prakash Prehlad, president of the Mozambican Federation of Commerce and Services (FEMOCOS), pointed out that despite the growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) between 2020 and 2024, taxation has not kept pace. However, “what we’ve said many times, which is the need to broaden the tax base, fails,” he explained.
Prehlad also emphasised that only 12% of formal market participants are properly registered, of which only 60% pay taxes in full. “This burdens companies that fulfil their tax obligations and discourages job creation and the flow of new investment,” he said.
For his part, Bersencio Vilanculos, president of Sofala’s forwarding agents, pointed to the need for a reform that integrates the platforms of the tax systems.
“The lack of harmonisation creates suspicions of bad faith taxation. There is, for example, information that is in the “Single Window”, but which is not in the tax system of the Tax Authority itself. It’s impossible to understand,” Vilanculos lamented.
Luís Bonzula, a local businessman, agreed that harmonisation and more effective dialogue between the different sectors will make tax collection more efficient.
“It will be easier to collect taxes, from micro to mega companies, which, unfortunately, is not happening for unclear reasons, leaving this obligation to only a small group of taxpayers,” said businessman Luís Bonzula.
Yolanda Sabino, the province’s operational director for internal taxes, responded to the private sector’s concerns, admitting that the concerns were legitimate and informing them that efforts are already being made to modernise the tax system with the support of new technologies, “in the sense of a more integrated approach in which there is communicability between the systems that are being operated in various different sectors, but all of them with a stamp to be able to authorise some kind of licence that, in the end, must be taxed,” she explained.
In addition, Tarzan Mandudnde, delegate of the Tax Authority in Sofala, revealed that the institution he is part of is working on improving its human resources and technology, “and, above all, in terms of behaviour, combating corruption, tax evasion and other tax illicit activities that are ailing the economy”.
The points raised arose in the context of a meeting on “Tax benefits and the creation of effective taxation”, in which the private sector and the Tax Authority discussed the future of the region’s tax system.
