Treasury advances in setting up Tax Tribunal
Speaking during the last pre-budget consultation meeting in Blantyre last week, Budget Director Loyce Chirinsungwi said the Treasury had made the required progress on the matter. “We have applied to the Ministry of Lands on premises; we have contacted the Judiciary to provide the chairperson of the institution and we have also received proposals from Icam…
The Ministry of Finance has revealed that the government has made progress in constituting the tax appeal tribunal, which is expected to expedite tax appeal cases in the country.
The tax appeal cases are currently handled by magistrates as special administrators and some cases are referred to the High Court.
However, law and taxation experts have been lamenting delays in justice delivery.
Speaking during the last pre-budget consultation meeting in Blantyre last week, Budget Director Loyce Chirinsungwi said the Treasury had made the required progress on the matter.
Chirinsungwi said, this far, land has been secured for construction of tribunal premises.
“We have applied to the Ministry of Lands on premises; we have contacted the Judiciary to provide the chairperson of the institution and we have also received proposals from Icam and the government’s Human Resource Department on personnel to work at the tribunal,” she said.
Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi (Icam) Vice President Moffat Ngalande applauded the ministry for the progress, adding that the tribunal would clear a backlog of tax cases.
Ngalande said there is still need to put extra effort and special allocation in the 2021/22 National Budget to ensure the tribunal is set faster.
“The tax tribunal formulation is already on the right track but we have asked government to speed up the process so that very old tax disputes are quickly resolved so that we do not have a backlog of these cases,” Ngalande said.
Tax cases were recently hovering around K50 billion.
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