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China sensitises its citizens on tax compliance

2017-11-16  Staff Report 2

China sensitises its citizens on tax compliance
Staff Reporter Windhoek-The Ministry of Finance received a boost when the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China held a tax law lecture to ensure businesses owned by Chinese complied with Namibian tax laws as part of the embassy’s efforts to cement the excellent political relations existing between the two countries. Speaking at the tax law lecture early this week, Chinese Ambassador to Namibia Zhang Yiming, who has hit the ground running in his quest to boost the sound diplomatic and political ties between the two countries, said, ‘’On behalf of the Chinese Embassy in Namibia, I would like to thank Hon. Minister and friends from the ministry of finance for their strong support to this lecture.” The Chinese embassy has undertaken to continue educating its citizens to comply with Namibian tax and other laws to safeguard the sound diplomatic relation existing between the two countries. He made the remarks early this week when the Chinese embassy in collaboration with the Namibian ministry of finance co-hosted the tax law lecture at the Chinese diplomatic quarters in Windhoek. Zhang informed Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein the purpose of holding the lecture is to promote the understanding of Namibian tax policies by Chinese businessmen and Chinese companies and to enhance their awareness of law-abiding and paying Namibian taxes. Secondly, it provides a platform for face-to-face communication on tax policies that the Chinese businessmen and Chinese companies should care about, so we can handle relevant issues properly.” Zhang, who has been proactive in taking the existing diplomatic and ties between his country and Namibia since his appointment, restated the two countries are all weather friends and he will try to make this sound relation a model among relations existing between and southern African countries. The ambassador was forthright saying the isolated cases of some Chinese businessmen investigated for their involvement in tax violations has arouses great concern from all parties since 2016. However, he noted the above-mentioned problems have their own complicated background such as the weak legal awareness of some taxpayers that he feels should be attended to and legal loopholes, lax government supervision and ineffective performance by individual law enforcement officers. “To solve the problems, we must not only point at the taxpayer and adopt a stick-and-kill approach, which is like to kill a chicken for its eggs and drinking poisons for a thirst,” stressed Zhang. “We must see the overall picture. On one hand, we must always consider safeguarding the traditional friendship between China and Namibia, and avoid exaggerating or politicizing individual case,” he said, as this could jeopardise the existing sound diplomatic relationship. “On the other hand, we must always consider the overall interests of the entire country, take the initiative to fix legal loopholes, standardise law enforcement actions, maintain a stable investment environment and promote the sustained and steady development of the economy,” he stated. China on the other hand fully understands Namibia’s efforts to solve the problems and it firmly cooperates with Namibia in fighting against money laundering and tax offenses in accordance with existing Namibian laws. “China will never tolerate law offenders,” he stressed.
2017-11-16  Staff Report 2

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