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Monash plays key role in African tax reform

10 September 2008

Professor Rick Krever, Sierra Leone.

Monash University's Taxation Law and Policy Research Institute (TLPRI) is playing a key role in helping African countries build their tax systems, providing training programs for administrators in countries including Sierra Leone and South Africa.

The institute is also providing technical assistance including helping to draft taxation laws.

Staff from the institute have been visiting Africa for about a decade, often working in conjunction with international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund.

Their experience in providing post-conflict help to rebuild tax systems in countries including East Timor, Kosovo and Afghanistan, has proved useful in Africa.

TLPRI director Professor Rick Krever, who has assisted with technical changes to Sierra Leone's income tax system, said much of the institute's work in Africa focused on the implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT), a consumption tax similar to Australia's Goods and Services Tax (GST).

"The TLPRI has contributed to a number of VAT training programs for African tax administrators in conjunction with its counterpart, the African Tax Institute at the University of Pretoria in South Africa," Professor Krever said.

"We also organised a conference in Pretoria in 2007 to bring together the latest research expertise on the theoretical and practical aspects of VAT."

Professor Krever said the recent publication of the research would make it accessible to policy makers and administrators across Africa, as well as tax policy advisors and officials in other developing countries.

For more information visit the Taxation Law and Policy Research Institute website.