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Fiji taxes in-line with global trends: Das

October 14, 2019 4:30 pm

Indirect taxes are on the increase with income taxes dropping.

Fiji Revenue and Customs Service CEO, Visvanath Das says that the tax administration has changed over the years which is evident in the revenue mix.

In the 2017/2018 financial year, income tax hit over $740 million with Value Added Tax at more than $780 million.

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In comparison, the following financial year of 2018/2019, income tax came in over $690 million with VAT accumulating over $830 million.

“Fiji is internationally aligned, the global trend in taxation is a shift away from income taxes into consumption taxes. Because consumption taxes are more proportionate, it’s more like user-pay so whoever uses more, pays more.”

Das further explains that according to the figures, direct taxes or income tax in the 2016/2017 attributed to 27.1% of the revenue mix, in 2018/2019, that figure dropped to 24.8%.

The VAT on the other hand in comparison over the same period rose from 27.1% to 29.6%.