LESOTHO TAX MODERNISATION PROJECT (AFDB-P-LS-KF0-003)

Countries
  • Lesotho
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • African Development Bank (AFDB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
U
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Nov 22, 2017
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Government of Lesotho
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Law and Government
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Amount (USD)
Not Disclosed
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ AFDB website

Updated in EWS Nov 29, 2019

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to bank information, the overall objective is to promote economic growth by providing the fiscal space (i.e., increased tax revenues) to maintain macroeconomic stability, while providing for priority economic and social expenditures. The specific objective of the Project is to support the effective implementation of the revenue modernisation program to strengthen tax revenue administration capacity through targeted assistance to:(a) e-taxation that will allow online tax services including registration, taxpayer relationship management, filing and payment; (b) introduction of fiscalised cash registers to improve VAT collections; and (c) introduce a simplified tax regime for small and informal sectors in order to reduce the costs of compliance and broaden tax base.

The Project has three mutually reinforcing components:

  1. Enhancing Tax Modernization. Objective: Introduce online tax services and cash registers to improve revenue collection and reduce leakages and corruption. Activities under this component will includes:
    1. Technical assistance to Redesign business processes and development of business requirements for e-taxation and cash registers
    2. Development and enactment of enabling legislation
    3. Procurement of e-taxation and cash register appropriate IT solutions and equipment
    4. Capacity building and training for rollout and implementation
  2. Improving Domestic Revenue Reform. Objective: Introduce a simplified tax regime for taxation of small and informal taxpayers, and toll fees in order to broaden tax base and tax collection and reduce cost of compliance. Activities under this component includes:
    1. Technical assistance to development of new processes and forms as well as business requirements
    2. Development and enactment of enabling legislation
    3. Configuration and customisation of ETPM system
    4. Development user requirements specifications, and software enhancements
    5. Procurement of hardware and site installation
    6. Training and roll out
  3. Project Management Support. Objective: to strengthen project management and implementation capacity. Activities under this component includes: 3.1 Project management, monitoring and audit.

Reflecting the lessons of past support, more emphasis will be given to strengthening national capacity and ownership of the project as well as adopting innovative approaches to capacity building through peer learning and partnering with ATAF.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Total cost: 5000000
Currency: UAC

Source(s) of financing
ADF: 5000000


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Task Manager: GEBRE-SELASSIE Kalayu, ECGF

*No fiurther contact details provided at the time of disclosure*

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/.

How it works

How it works