REPORT 2013

16 FRCA SIX MONTHS REPORT 2013
Description
Nasese
Foreshore
Joint Tsunami
Evacuation
Plan
Remarks
Risk Officer is part of the Nasese Foreshore
Joint Tsunami Evacuation Plan Committee.
The committee has agreed for FRCA to
develop an evacuation route from the
back of the FRCA Nasese Complex into the
Police Academy compound for our staff to
proceed to the evacuation point as this is
a shorter route.
ESU Files
Legal
Drafting
Customs IRS Opinion
8 13 5 28 39
We have closed the following files
DMU LEU Customs ESU Tax
Tribunal
Legal
Drafting
815 2 2 4 26 5
New Risk Identification – Various sections are to identify
emerging risks and register it with Internal Assurance Section.
This can be done during the reviews or at any point in time.
It has been noted that sections hardly identify new risks. Most
of the emerging risks are identified by the Internal Assurance
Section either through ESU investigations or Internal Audit.
FRCA Extreme & High Risk Summary
There are 8 (5 extreme and 3 high) risks that was pending
from the 2012 Extreme & High Risk List.
Records Management
Work on clearing backlog filing and rearrangement of filing
area has seen marked improvement in both on and off site
storage. Archiving of records also continued
Recruitment & Selection
There were 35 staff appointed through the recruitment
process with 26 new recruits (Customs(2), Corporate(3), Tax
(21)) and 9 internal promotions Taxation(8), Corporate (1).
Termination of Employment
Four staff resigned with 3 Taxation staff migrating while 1
Corporate staff joined a local training institution to facilitate
his studies. Two support officers were deemed to have resigned
for absence without approval for periods of 7 days or more
and breaching the Leave Policy & Procedures. Five staff were
summarily dismissed on ethical grounds in line with the Zero
Tolerance Policy by the Board.
Legislation
The Legal Services section has the responsibility of drafting
FRCA laws. The Legislation Unit liaised with relevant
stakeholders within and outside of FRCA to achieve this
purpose. Expert external consultant such as Professor Lee
Burns were used by the Division to assist in the drafting
process.
The Legislation Unit, in 2013 focused on the consultation,
drafting of laws in relation to Income Tax Decree; Revenue
Measures for 2013; Stamp Duty, Customs Act & Regulations,
Capital Gains Tax Decree, and Airport Departure Tax.
The Draft Income Tax Decree is now with the office of the
Attorney General for vetting and approval.
Litigation
In terms of litigation, we conducted several hearings in the
Tax Tribunal and High Court. we have conducted have 4
hearings before the Tax Court. These were all appeals from
the Tax Tribunal where the Tax Tribunal ruled in favour of the
Authority. Out of the 6 matters, 4 appeals have been dismissed
and 2 awaiting judgments.
The Division opened the following files from 1 January – 31
July 2013:
Economic Modeling & Analysis
The Economic Modeling & Analysis Unit, which is part of
the Policy Section, in the first half of the year continues to
deliver its core functions in terms of finalizing the monthly
forecasts in the beginning of the year, while also providing
revenue analysis to the board in terms of the monthly Revenue
Board papers. In doing so, the team continues to improve the
standard of its revenue analysis, going in depth in providing
economic explanations to the CEO and the FRA Board on the
reasons for revenue performance in each tax category.
The unit continues to facilitate data request received from
stakeholders daily, and the demand for such data has grown
significantly compared to previous years, since the demand for
tax data has grown from our stakeholders. While it continues to
provide weekly revenue reports, while it also works on having
daily forecasts ready. It continues to represent the authority
in the Macro-technical Committee, and in doing so provides
the necessary data needed for the revision of the country’s
Gross Domestic product. As year progresses on, the unit is also
anticipating the challenge of the 2014 National Budget Works
preparation, which is also a core function for the team.
Research Planning and Policy Development
An important function of the Unit is to ensure that FRCA
meets all its statutory requirements as per the FRCA Act. This
involves the drafting and finalization of the Corporate Plan,
Annual Reports and Half Yearly Reports. The RPPD Unit has
completed all the works on the Annual Report within the
required statutory timelines. The draft Annual Report was
submitted to the Minister for Finance on 30th April 2012 with
unaudited accounts. The Unit is also part of various initiatives
such as the Balance Scorecard and Performance Assessment,
and the Service Excellence Awards.
Taxation Revenue Services
Similarly, there were 1577 cases for Capital Gains Tax received
of which 1419 were processed from January to June this
year. Of the number processed, 295 cases were payable. The
Authority collected $5.2m in Capital Gains Tax which was
over the forecast by $1.7m and is consistent with economic
growth in the real estate sector. Stamp Duty payments also
reflect this. Property related transactions accounted for 45.4%
of stamp duty collection in the month of June. Additionally,
motor vehicle loan rates were decreased dramatically with
increased demand indicative in the bill of sale transactions.
Stamp Duty received a total of 112,297 documents for the first
six months of this year and collected $17.8m worth of tax. This
was a growth of 97.9% for the same period last year.
Customs Risk & Compliance
The main focus of Customs Risk & Compliance whilst fulfilling
its responsibilities of audit, investigation and gathering
intelligence, is to solicit voluntary compliance through a
partnership arrangement with stakeholders. However, in the
event that dues cannot be collected for a certain period of
time, Customs legislations are enforced to recover these dues.
This function falls under the role of Desk Audit which is now