Burkina Faso eSintax, a platform to declare and pay taxes online
Burkina Faso marks another step in the development of eGovernment services. eSintax, a platform launched by the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI), offers Burkinabe taxpayers the possibility of tele-declare and tele-pay their taxes in a secure space on the internet. ANA has interviewed the Tax Director General, Adama Badolo.
Interview conducted by Ibrahima Sanou, Ouagadougou
Would you please introduce the platform?
It is a platform for declaring and paying taxes. We say tele-declaration and tele-payment because the taxpayer no longer has to physically move the tax administration to communicate the amount of tax he has to pay. He stays at home and uses this portal to transmit his tax return to the tax administration and also to pay his taxes. To date, the first phase namely the tele-declaration, is effective. A public investment of nearly 180 million FCFA (about 274,809 euros). We are working so that before June 30, 2018, the second phase, the tele-payment, is also operational. It will allow taxpayers, to do online payment, mobile money payment, online services such as e-certification of tax status.
What are the advantages of this portal for both taxpayers and DGI?
Regarding the benefits, it must be noted that the taxpayer who had to travel to pick up the forms, fill them and return to the administration, queue up to file his statements, no longer has to do so. This is a real saving of time and economy for the taxpayer. It is also a simplification for the taxpayer who only needs access to the internet, to transmit his statement automatically. For the administration, the resources that were allocated for the reception and processing of the statements will be used for other tasks. Taxmen will no longer be at the ticket counters to receive the statements; we will no longer ask our taxmen to computerize the statements that reach us. The platform will allow the reduction of the processing time of the declarations at the cash desk, the reduction of the time of statements processing by teams and the assistance to the taxpayer in the filling of statement forms. This project also contributes to the improvement of the business environment in Burkina Faso and therefore the advance of Burkina Faso in the Doing business ranking.
Is the platform available for all taxpayers?
The taxpayers who can use this first phase of the eSINTAX platform are the companies of the Directorate of Large Companies (DGE) and those of the Directorate of Medium Enterprises (DME) but later, the small taxpayers and the micro-enterprises of the informal sector will also access the platform. 5000 taxpayers with a contribution that would correspond to 90% of the recoveries of the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) will be involved in this first phase. We therefore call on all directorates of medium and large companies in the cities of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso to join this new service.
What are the steps to take to join the eSINTAX platform and take advantage of the services?
To join our portal and take advantage of the new dematerialized services, the taxpayer must first go to the premises of local tax center to which he belongs to take his « eSINTAX » number. This is a confidential and essential number to sign up and log in to your online business services space. Once in possession of this confidential number, the taxpayer can connect to eSINTAX.bf and follow the steps of the online registration process. For this step, he must provide the person responsible for his business space on the portal and attach the required supporting documents, namely the authorization of the corporate officer and the identity document of the main user. Upon submission of the membership application, the DGI checks his application and activates his online account within a maximum of 48 hours following the request. This control the information provided and digitized documents protects taxpayers from identity theft. Once the request is accepted, a temporary password is emailed to the primary user of the company account. This password must be changed at the first login by the primary user. We reassure taxpayers that to enable them to be in tune with this new service, training sessions will be organized for them.
