Pemba entrepreneurs find 2016 tax collection targets “fabulous”

Entrepreneurs in Pemba, Cabo Delgado, say that, with the Mozambican economy in depression, the metical depreciating, export commodity prices falling and pressure on inflation, it will be near impossible for the government to reach its tax collection targets this year.Entrepreneurs expressed their concern at a meeting with the Director General of Customs in Pemba this week, to whom they suggested that the executive revise revenue forecasts for the year downward.“What we ask is that the Director General of Customs, when he next talks to the people responsible for the planning and preparation of the state budget, transmits our concern. It is not reasonable from an economic point of view to expect tax revenues to increase during an economic depression,” businessman Assif Osman said.The Director General of Customs, Aly Malla said that the targets were adopted by parliament and that it was not the responsibility of Customs to interfere. “It is determined that the state needs a certain budget and it is up to us only to carry out instructions,” the director general said.