BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Non-tax revenue payments under the Ministry of Commerce such as payments of company registration fees, trading license fees and liquor license fees will now be paid at any Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS).
ERS is now preparing itself for the revenue takeover, which is supposed to start this coming Thursday.
ERS posted on its Facebook page, notifying its clients of its readiness to take over some of the revenue services. “Effective 02 May 2024, non-tax revenue payments under the Ministry of Commerce such as payments of company registration fees, trading license fees and liquor license fees will now be paid at any ERS Service Centre across the country,” read the post.
This notification follows a press conference that was held about two weeks ago (April 17, 2024), where the then acting Minister for Finance Mabulala Maseko officially announced the revenue takeover. The conference was held at the ERS Headquarters in Ezulwini.
From this coming Thursday, all payments to be made for the Ministry of Commerce services will be facilitated at the ERS service centres across the country. The services include company registration fees, trading licence fees, and liquor licensing fees.
This initiative aims to streamline revenue collection by entrusting full responsibility to ERS, as outlined in the Revenue Authority Act of 2008. This will be done in four phases, with Phase One commencing with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade. During the event, Maseko disclosed that all revenue line items currently collected by the Treasury Department under various Government ministries would be transferred to ERS.
The act of taking over of revenue services by ERS has been discussed for a long time now in policy formulating forums such as Parliament. MPs have been calling upon Government to transfer such services to ERS, as it was believed that with the tax collector overseeing such an important function, members of the nation could be relieved.
At the moment, the public is complaining about the poor services said to be obtained at the revenue centres around the country. People complain that they are not given an efficient service yet they go to the revenue offices to give money to Government. Long queues have been the main complain when it came to the services at these centres, yet they closed as early as 3pm.
Members of the public feel that ERS could be effective in giving services in these centres, just as the tax collector is effective in collecting all kinds of taxes within the country. The members of the public believe that with the ERS, the long queues could be a thing of the past.
