IRREGULARITIES IN TAX REGISTRATION HINDER ACCESS TO CREDIT

IRREGULARITIES IN TAX REGISTRATION HINDER ACCESS TO CREDIT

Maputo, 10 Dec (AIM) – Most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Mozambique are not bankable due to irregularities in tax registration, a fact that hinders the quick growth of the business environment in the country.

“There is a lot of informal business that needs to be regularized so that companies are able to follow all tax procedures”, said the Representative of the Reforms Coordination Office, João Macaringue, at the business debate held on Friday in Maputo on the course of the Implementation of the Economic Acceleration Package of Measures announced last July by President Filipe Nyusi.

“We have to work so that traders feel encouraged to register their economic activities. In fact, what discourages them are the immediate charges”, the representative added.

For Macaringue, there is a need to adopt policies to encourage the registration of economic activities. “It is not enough to use the municipal police to run after traders, he insisted.”

“Some traders register their activities but, due to the absence of policies for them to remain in the system, they end up leaving”, Macaringue said, adding that Mozambique should adopt mechanisms that consist of exempting newly registered companies from paying taxes for a period of one year, similar to other countries.

“This is the only way that we can keep small companies in the formal system. Within the system, companies will be able to contribute continuously, but we have to open space so that they can grow”, the source urged.

For his part, the Chairperson of the Association of European Businessmen in Mozambique (EUROCAM), Simone Santi, called for the minimization of bureaucracy in the registration of foreign companies, eventually asking for visa exemption for European countries with business interests in Mozambique.

“We have to reduce political bureaucracy and bet more on the business debate. We have to know that diplomacy is different from business”, Santi said, stressing that “business people work with numbers.”

According to the chairperson of EUROCAM, European countries continue to have high interests in investing in the energy area, taking into account that Mozambique has already started exporting liquefied natural gas from the Rovuma basin, in a project that will produce 3.4 million tons of LNG per year, led by the Italian energy company Eni.

“We want to continue to invest in Mozambique, especially in the energy area where we have major operators: TotalEnergies, ENI, Galp. Mozambique is positioning itself as an exporter of natural gas to Europe and this is an important sign”, Santi said.

The first cargo of liquefied natural gas extracted by the Mozambique LNG venture, in the Coral Sul field, off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, has already arrived in Bilbao, Spain.
(AIM)
Ad/pf (455)