2018/19 Budget Communication 2018_2019 BUDGET COMMUNICATION | Page 33

compliance burden on citizens and the private sector as well
as generate the revenues that are rightfully due to
Government.
As has been demonstrated with the
introduction of the Value Added Tax, it is possible to
implement international best practices and modern processes
and procedures based on state of the art technologies such
that tax administration is client friendly, efficient and
effective. As I have said, we are striving to do just that for
all of the major taxes.
However, having said that, it is also evident that our
very structure of taxation itself is antiquated and inadequate
to the needs of modern governance in the 21st century. A
tax system with traditionally heavy reliance on Customs
duties and, more recently Excise duties, that apply solely to
goods is clearly deficient in a world in which services have
come to dominate goods in terms of relative economic
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