Malagasy tax authority celebrates its 50th anniversary this year

The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Malagasy tax authority, consisting of tax inspectors, controllers, and tax agents, started last week at Anosy. During his speech, the General Manager of taxes, Armand Tazafy, highlighted the inexistence of tax centers in different regions of Madagascar. According to him, the general situation within the tax administration has not changed much during the past 10 and 20 years.

In the first days of tax administration, there were about 70 tax centers in the Great Island. Nowadays, the administration has 80 centers. That insufficiency of tax centers in Madagascar has always prevented the administration to reach its goal, which is to operate near taxpayers. What the administration needs is to establish tax management office in each region of Madagascar and one tax center in each district (there are now 119 districts in Madagascar). In spite of that, however, the objectives of the administration have been attainted so far. The estimated tax revenue tops around 1.700 billion Ariary.

The Malagasy tax authority consists now of 8 600 tax agents. That huge number was the result of a massive recruitment that was going on since 2008. Before, tax administration was divided into direct and indirect taxation, registration and revenue stamp. Today, these services are becoming unified.

And in order to perform their tasks without any problems, tax agents should, now and then, get specific trainings which would allow them, whether to learn new things or to refresh their skills.