By Bahle Gama
Due to the failure to reflect the ‘Nkwe for growth’ mandate, the revenue offices will be shut down and handed over to the Eswatini Revenue Services (ERS).
This was disclosed by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg when responding to a question about the slow service provided by the office and what the solution is. This was during the Ministry’s portfolio committee 2024 budget debate in Parliament on Monday.
“The revenue offices will be shut down honourable. The ERS will be taking over all the functions of the revenue offices,” he said.
The Minister said the staff at the office tries hard but still, it is not enough because there is always a queue that goes all the way to the road, which he described as ‘embarrassing’ for people to be in the sun waiting to pay money to the government.
Over the past years, there has been an outcry over the slow service resulting in very long queues at the revenue offices countrywide.
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This was also observed during the general elections last year when nominees were reported to be spending nights at revenue offices with the hope of getting their clearance forms.
This was part of the requirements for qualifying as a nominee for a candidate, that they should have paid all taxes and in different parts of the country, some had brought blankets and spent the night at the offices with the hope of being tended to earliest.
Also on May 24, 2023, the ERS in partnership with the World Customs Organisation (WCO) launched the electronic Advance Ruling Tool (e-ART) to reduce queues, especially at the border posts in the country.
The e-ART aims to provide binding customs decisions on the classification and origin of commodities before they enter or exit the country. This signified achievement for the ERS following the launch of the Electronic Tariff Tool in 2021 and a series of technical assistance as well as trade facilitation measures.
Also, worth noting is that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the poor service at the government offices was reported to make it difficult for the public to comply with the social distancing regulation at the time.
This was observed as one way that contributed to increased infections because people were more concerned about being tended to first whilst neglecting the precautionary measures at the time.
