ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia aims to collect 8.53 billion U.S. dollars tax revenue in the current fiscal year 2017/18, which started on July 8, an official said Saturday.
Speaking to Xinhua, Haji Ibsa, Communications Director at Ethiopia Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation, said the tax revenue target is part of the East African nation's drive to become fully self-reliant on its annual budget.
"The tax revenue target will be greater by 1.1 billion U.S. dollars than the tax revenue achieved in 2016/17 when Ethiopia earned 7.43 billion U.S. dollars in tax revenue," he said.
Ethiopia also plans to earn 1.1 billion dollars in non-tax domestic revenues during this 2017/18 fiscal year.
The East African nation in recent years has been able to mobilize greater amount of tax and non-tax revenue, allowing it to cover more than 80 percent of its annual budgetary needs.
Nevertheless foreign loans and grants covered 18 percent of the 12.7 billion dollars budget for the 2016/17 fiscal year.
With its domestic financial resources capability increasing, Ethiopia has raised its 2017/18 budget by 9.6 percent to 13.9 billion dollars.
"Despite setbacks in meeting export targets, Ethiopia's domestic revenues are increasing year by year, so the new focus with development partners has shifted to assistance in technological and technical aspect," said Ibsa.
