Maputo — The target for Mozambican tax collection for 2005 was not reached, and so the country's tax administration "must redouble its efforts for efficiency in collecting revenue", declared Finance Minister Manuel Chang on Monday.

Speaking at the latest of his Ministry's regular seminars on the implementation of tax policy, Chang recalled that the target laid down in the 2005 state budget was to collect revenue of 22,225.9 billion meticais (about 889 million US dollars, at current exchange rates).

But in fact only 21,617.4 billion meticais were collected, a shortfall of 2.7 per cent. Tax revenue was thus equivalent to 14.1 per cent of GDP, rather than the 14.5 per cent planned.

A greater effort will be needed this year to meet the considerably higher target of 26,288.3 billion meticais.

Chang argued that better performance involved improving the link between the tax administration and the taxpayers. This meant building on the Maputo experience of setting up a finance ministry establishment in the centre of the city exclusively to provide information to taxpayers.

A further priority was to increase the number of tax offices. Currently tax collection is highly centralised: thus the Maputo-Matola connurbation, with a total population of over 1.5 million, have just three offices where people can pay their taxes.

Chang urged all tax officials to improve management mechanisms, and to fight against corruption, fraud and tax evasion.

They must rigorously obey the law, he stressed, channelling all the funds that enter the tax offices to the state's coffers.

The tax administration must behave with "independence and neutrality", and not allow any kind of intervention of "third parties" in the relation with taxpayers.

This year promises to be a difficult one for the tax administration, partly because of the monetary reform that takes effect as from July, involving knocking three digits off the country's currency. so that the current thousand metical coin, for example, will become one new metical.

This would be a challenge, Chang admitted, and tax officers must strictly obey the rules from the central bank on the currency reform, and must inform taxpayers correctly about them.