Max Gallien discusses smuggling in North Africa on CSIS podcast
ICTD Research Fellow Max Gallien talked in-depth about his work researching smuggling in North Africa during an episode of the ‘Babel: Translating the Middle East’ podcast run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“[W]orking with communities is really important in dealing with smuggling. It has an even stronger economic aspect to it, and even stronger recognition of the degree to which communities have been economically dependent on it,” he said.
This is what “makes it so difficult to engage with policymakers on this issue, because it als makes it often vey expensive to deal with,” he added.
Listen to the podcast here or read the transcript.
ICTD’s Digital Tax Administration conference in Rwanda rakes in local and regional media coverage
ICTD’s conference entitled ‘Towards a Digital Tax Administration: Lessons learnt and directions for reform‘, co-hosted with the Rwanda Revenue Authority from 12-13 December in Kigali, Rwanda, received significant coverage from local and regional media.
Highlights include:
- CNBC Africa: Digitising tax administrations in Africa
- Igihe: Tax administrations urged to harness AI to modernize tax systems ; Ikoranabuhanga ryongereye 95% by’umusoro ku nyungu ukusanywa ; RRA yiteze umusanzu ku ikoranabuhanga rya ‘Digitax’ mu kunoza imitangire y’imisoro mu Rwanda
- Taarifa: Tax administrations urged to harness AI to modernize tax systems
- The New Times: Digital transformation poised to transform tax administration – experts
- Coverage by at least three TV broadcast channels, namely RwandaTV, TV1 Rwanda, and TV10 Rwanda.
Sierra Leone media outlet mentions ICTD Fellow Max Gallien
An article in Sierra Leone-based news outlet Awoko mentioned ICTD Research Fellow Max Gallien who met with the delegation from Sierra Leone’s National Revenue Authority during the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington, D.C. in October.
Gallien was quoted saying: “We’re excited about the potential to expand our current research partnership.” Read the full article here.
Mick Moore pens op ed on new property tax in Sri Lanka
ICTD Research Fellow Mick Moore wrote an op ed for the Daily Mirror on the “Imputed Rental Income Tax”, a new property tax introduced in Sri Lanka as agreed by the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Moore said in part: “The new tax will produce little revenue for several years. Worse perhaps, it would directly encourage tax evasion, and make the tax system seem even more unfair, obscure or ridiculous. It would not build the public support needed to make the tax system more effective in the longer term.”
Read the full article, entitled ‘Property Taxes: No Thanks but Many Thanks to the IMF’, here.
ICTD brief on taxing mobile money in Africa cited in Agence Ecofin article
Agence Ecofin, a Francophone Pan-African media outlet that focuses on economic news, highlighted in a report the findings of ICTD Policy Brief 10, entitled “Taxing Mobile Money in Africa: Risk and Reward“.
“While taxing monile money services in Africa could increase government revenue, it may negatively impact the poorest households if small transactions are not exempted,” the article stated, referencing the ICTD brief.
Shift in Global Tax Governance – article cites ICTD research
In this article for Modern Diplomacy, Andi M. Ilham analyses Asia’s Stance on recent and seismic shifts in global tax governance, citing ICTD Working Paper 172 on Inclusive and Effective International Tax Cooperation: Views from the Global South.
ICTD gets media coverage on the #RejectFinanceBill2024 protests in Kenya
We roundup the interviews, mentions, and citations in the media of ICTD researchers and their work on news relating to the recent protests against the Finance Bill 2024 in Kenya and beyond:
- CBC News’ video explainer ‘Kenyans fought a deadly fight against their government. Here’s how they won I About That‘ features our Research Fellow Wilson Prichard.
- An earlier article on The Africa Report, ‘Kenya: Could Ruto’s hated taxes spur cleaner government?‘, citing ICTD research conducted by Prichard, has made the rounds online recently in light of events in the last few weeks.
- ICTD authors Mario Schmidt and Eric Magale pen an op-ed for The Conversation Africa on the recent protests, linking it to their forthcoming working paper on reactions towards new digital taxation laws in Kenya and the need to renew the social contract, which is part of our DIGITAX Research Programme.
- ICTD Executive Director, Giulia Mascagni, is quoted in this article published by Liam Taylor in The Economist: The lessons of Africa’s tax revolts (economist.com)
ICTD policy brief on digital IDs and digital payments cited in BiometricUpdate.com report
ICTD Policy Brief 7, entitled ‘Digital IDs and Digital Payments – Opportunities and Challenges for Tax Administration’ was cited by BiometricUpdate.com, a specialist news outlet that focuses on developments in the global biometrics market, in its report on talks of tax reforms involving digital IDs in Nigeria.
The brief, as quoted in the report, notes that “digital identity and digital retail payments are ‘potential catalysts to improved tax outcomes’.”
ICTD blog on digital IDs and tax administration in Ethiopia cited in media reports
Research produced under ICTD’s DIGITAX programme on the integration of digital ID systems with tax administration systems was cited by the following news outlets:
- BiometricUpdate.com, a specialized news outlet that focuses on developments and research about the global biometrics market.
- Ethiopia-based Fana Broadcasting Corporate.
Both articles refer to a blog written by our Doctoral Fellow Seid Yimam Mohamed and Research Fellow Fabrizio Santoro, published in May 2024, that discusses five potential benefits of integrating Fayda, Ethiopia’s national digital ID system, with tax administration systems, drawing lessons from the experiences in Uganda and Ghana.
Martin Hearson weighs in on UN tax convention negotiations in Law360 article
ICTD co-Research Director Martin Hearson shared his insights with Law360 on the recently concluded first round of negotiations for the terms of reference of the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.
Hearson, who leads ICTD’s International Tax programme, spoke about the capacity deficit that lower-income coutnries face in participating in such processes, saying: “Part of the way to overcome that capacity deficit is for countries to collaborate more outside of negotiations themselves, so that the people who do attend can credibly represent a larger constituency, which is something the OECD countries are quite used to doing already.”
He also weighed in on digital services taxation and transfer pricing, among others. The full article, entitled ‘5 Goals Gov’ts Have For The UN Tax Convention’, can be accessed here.
DIGITAX workshop on taxing mobile money garners media attention in Ghana
The two-day DIGITAX Research Programme workshop in Accra on ‘Taxing mobile money: Lessons and ways forward’, hosted by the Ghana Revenue Authority in partnership with ICTD, received coverage in several media outlets during the end of February and beginning of March. Among them are:
- “Insights on Ghana’s e-levy: What do we know nearly two years on?” story on Modern Ghana and Ghana News
- “‘E-levy must be sustained otherwise the country will depend too much on loans’ – GRA” story on Modern Ghana
- “‘Older, more educated Ghanians more likely to support E-levy’ – Report” story on Modern Ghana
- “Study Reveals Age, Education Influence Support for Ghana’s E-levy Among Informal Workers” on BNN Ghana
- “E-levy roped in informal sector into the tax net – GRA” story on GhanaWeb
- “E-levy affects the poor more than the rich – Research” story and interview with ICTD Research Director Martin Hearson on GhanaWeb
- “Stakeholders Call for E-Levy Review” story published on Ghana News, GH Headlines, and Daily Guide Network
ICTD research on duty-free imports of electronic transmission products in Africa cited in Tax Notes
ICTD Working Paper 181, entitled ‘Are Trade Rules Undermining Taxation of the Digital Economy in Africa?’, was cited in a report by Tax Notes on the recent renewal of the World Trade Organization’s moratorium on custom duties for e-commerce.
Institute of Development Studies Research Fellow Karishma Banga, who co-authored the paper with Alexander Beyleveld, was also quoted in the piece, saying in part:
“The moratorium has constrained the ability of African and developing countries to raise tax revenue from the steadily growing imports of electronically transmitted products.”
Read the full Tax Notes article, entitled ‘WTO Ministers Renew Moratorium on Custom Duties for E-Commerce’, here.