Challenges of the customs valuation system in Ethiopia (PDF)

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Accounting and Taxes, Ethiopian Civil Service University, course: procurement and asset management, language: English, abstract: The general objective of this work is to assess the factors that affect Ethiopian importers during customs valuation. The work was conducted to assess the practices and challenges of customs valuation. In particular, the work attempted to achieve the following specific research objectives: The author seeks to explain practices of custom valuation, identify the major factors that affect importers during the procedures of customs valuation, analyse and describe challenges in customs assessment processes and discover the customs operational problems in Ethiopia, in order to identify inspection or physical examination problems during the custom valuation process while enhancing the objective of trade control.

Indirect taxes contribute the significant portion of tax revenues in developing countries in general and Ethiopia in particular. Custom duties and import taxes are among the important indirect taxes levied on imported commodities in Ethiopia. Despite the fact that foreign trade taxes and duties provide significant revenues to Ethiopia, there is a serious and complex problem of invoicing of import values by importers. Duties and taxes escape the net resulting in gross economic distortions such as uneven playing field and unfair competition for legal traders. Such circumstances also result in loss of revenues to government.