Namibia Revenue Agency (Namra) commissioner Sam Shivute has defended the tax collecting authority’s seemingly bloated management structure, saying to become world class they need to hire the crème de la crème, which does not come cheaply.

This was Shivute’s response to media queries during the agency’s first engagement on Tuesday, after it had advertised vacancies for 21 managers last week.

Namra is currently headed by Shivute as the commissioner followed by the executive assistant, with about 1 200 employees of which 1 184 (95 per cent) were seconded from the finance ministry prior to Namra’s creation.

There are nine more executive positions which include the head of domestic taxes; head of customs and excise; chief financial officer and corporate services; chief human capital and strategy; chief information officer; chief legal services; chief internal audit and risk management; chief communications and international relations and chief internal affairs.

Additionally, Namra is expected to have regional managers for the 14 political regions.

Shivute justified this by saying the revenue agency aims to become the best in the world, adding that their structure is benchmarked against other similar agencies within the region and World Trade Organisation standards.

He disputed the notion that Namra has over-employed, saying that when his team came on board, they reviewed the initial Namra structure, cut and consolidated some positions.

He cautioned against comparing Namra to any local organisation, saying the agency has to be present in almost every town, at every port, airport and border.

Over the years, Namibia’s tax collection success rate averaged 95 per cent.

When asked why create a semi-autonomous revenue agency, Shivute said it was necessitated by leakages in tax collection and other inefficiencies.

“There are challenges of under-declaration, undervaluation and smuggling which leads to Namibia losing money,” he said, adding that Namra has already collected N.dollars 23 billion, or 43 per cent of its target, by 30 September.

The target is to collect N.dollars 49 billion by the end of the current financial year.

In the meantime, Shivute was conservative when asked what Namra intends to do to aggressively collect taxes from Chinese nationals in Namibia who stand accused of tax evasion.

“We do not target nationalities, ethnic groups or regions. All non-compliant taxpayers are grouped in one category. If you look at that N.dollars 12 billion [that is owed to the taxman], everybody is included,” he said.

The agency exists to collect revenue for the State, facilitate trade and protect society and the economy.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency