Seychelles hosts technical meeting on indirect taxes |04 June 2012

The conference, held on May 29-30 at the Le Meridiens Barbarons Hotel, focused specifically on; global trends in indirect taxation, recent vevelopments and experiences in indirect tax on the African continent, best practices in Value Added Tax (Vat) Design, Vat treatment of financial services, taxation of telecommunications and the e-commerce trade, the prevalence and administration of excise duties in Africa and compliance challenges in administering indirect taxes.

Members of the ATAF not only had the opportunity to share their countries’ taxation issues but also to learn from each other.

Also present at the conference was Piet Battiau, head of consumption taxes of the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) and representatives of Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) from South Africa.

The opening ceremony took place on May 29 in the presence of Pierre Laporte, Minister for Finance, Trade and Investment; Jennifer Morel, commissioner of the Seychelles Revenue Commission and Georgette Pillay, deputy commissioner.

In his opening address Minister Laporte thanked the ATAF for choosing Seychelles as the venue for this important event.

He said that Seychelles, as a small island state with very limited natural resources, attaches great importance to revenue collection and that indirect taxes are of particularly importance to the country as they are a major contributor to the government’s revenue.

Altogether seventeen (17) countries, including Seychelles, which are members of the ATAF took part in the two-day conference.

The current membership of ATAF stands at thirty-one (31) African states. 

Contributed