SRC submits 2021 annual report to Finance Minister Hassan |24 June 2022

Minister Hassan accepts copies of the report from Mrs Herminie (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

The Seychelles Revenue commission has handed its 2021 annual report to the Minister for Finance, National Planning and Trade, Naadir Hassan.

It was the Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC) commissioner general Veronique Herminie who handed a copy of the report to Minister Hassan in the presence of key representatives from the ministry, including chairman of the SRC board Chrystold Chetty, deputy commissioner general Fred Morel, commissioner of customs Paul Barrack and SRC’s director corporate planning and research Emmaline Camille.

This ceremony at Liberty House started with a summary presentation of the report by Ms Camille who said the SRC managed to exceed the target for the fiscal year 2021 set by the Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade.

According to SRC chairman Chetty, the year 2021 provided to SRC a positive yet challenging environment for carrying out its mandate.

He said the SRC once again managed to exceed its revised revenue forecast by R4.22 million, with a total collection of R6.5 billion. This revenue performance was accentuated by the amnesty programme with a total debt adjustment of R173.4 million. In comparison, in 2020 SRC collected R6.3 billion.

The number of taxpayers who registered for the year 2021 is 19,993 compared to 18,376 in 2020.

On the other hand, the number of taxpayers in arrears for the year 2021 is 5,216 compared to 3,593 in 2020.

The total revenue collection overview shows R6.379 billion in revenue collections with 80.33% contribution to total government revenue, 69% domestic tax (main source of revenue), 31% contribution from customs, R365.31 million increase from fiscal year 2020, 31% tax collection to GDP (gross domestic products), 3.57% contribution from Praslin and La Digue, and 25% tourism industry contribution to domestic tax.

Tax distribution by geographical order location, Mahé 96.43%, Praslin 3.41% and La Digue 0.16%.

Revenue collection proportion for the year 2021 is as follows: domestic tax 69%, customs duties 29% and the non-tax revenue 2%.

The following tax lines exceeded revenue collected in 2020: business tax leading with a variance of R246.26 million, value added tax (Vat) by R210.42 million, immovable property tax by R43.88 million, income tax by R6.90 million, presumptive tax by R5.86 million and GST arrears by R0.62 million.

On the other hand, a negative performance was recorded under the following tax lines when compared to 2020: excise tax by R-60.28 million, custom duties by R-45.76 million, CSRT arrears by R-40.77 million, and TMT by R-1.61 million.

This represents a growth of 6% compared to the fiscal year 2020, which amounts to R365.61 million more than the preceding year. This, according to chairperson Chetty, may have been driven by the general economic recovery that the country started to experience in the year 2021 compared to 2020 after the effect of the pandemic.

As for SRC commissioner general Veronique Herminie, she said the fiscal year 2021 tested our resolve, resilience and efficiencies as the Covid-19 pandemic continued to affect the lives of people, business operations and government functions around the world especially during the first four months of 2021. “Our strategic purpose and mandate guided the manner in which we effectively responded to the pandemic in order to continue maintaining a level of service to taxpayers and importers alike for improved revenue collection.

“Despite the challenges, the Seychelles Revenue Commission managed to collect a total sum of R6.5 billion to meet our forecasted revenue collection for the year. We were also able to keep our expenses well within our budget and maintained our cost of collection to 1.95,” said Mrs Herminie.

Minister Hassan expressed his appreciation to SRC and added that it plays an important role for the country.

He also pointed out that the ministry will continue to give its full support to SRC by giving additional resources to recruit more people and train more employees.

To add on to that he said soon a new building will be built for SRC which will result in saving rent money.

SRC’s vision is to be a modern, fair and effective customer-oriented revenue administration, while its mission is to optimise revenue collection and facilitate trade to improve the socio-economic well-being of Seychelles.

Annadrey Celestine