Following a new strategy, the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service has discovered about $80 million in unpaid VAT.

According to FRCS Director of Corporate Services Shavindra Nath, this was discovered through a “mixing and matching” exercise that compared VAT inputs and outputs to identify any inconsistencies.

Nath says FRCS has adopted a more proactive approach to strengthen compliance and improve tax recovery.

“Because we have revamped this area, just VAT alone, we have done a mixing and matching exercise of VAT input versus VAT output and have identified about $80 million of non-payments. So this has led to different actions, FRCS has gone and spoken to the taxpayers that were affected.”

However, Standing Committee on Public Accounts member Hem Chand expressed concerns regarding challenges in reaching certain taxpayers, due to outdated or invalid contact information.

“My question is contacting the taxpayers. I can see that the taxpayers, they are also educated on that, on the importance of timely tax filing and payment, but the there may be some taxpayers, the email address and the contact that they have given may not be valid. So how are they contacted?

In response, Director of Taxation Momina Beg explained that FRCS has deployed field teams and education officers across the country to engage directly with taxpayers.

“Our team does a lot of inspections that they are on the ground. They, for example, if you look at the debt and the lodgment enforcement, they go out and about to engage with these taxpayers and apart from that we have got a good taxpayer education and awareness team which is not only in Suva, it also includes all our outer ports where they go and do field inspections.

Beg adds that to improve its outreach, the FRCS is planning to install information portals and service kiosks in partnership with district offices.

She says this will allow taxpayers in remote areas to more easily update their records, file tax returns, and fulfill their tax obligations.

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