By Staff Reporter
December 14, 2019 (Ezega.com) -- The Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture has announced the lifting of import taxes levied on 624 types of agricultural machines.
Speaking in a relevant meeting in Adama on Saturday, capital of Oromia region, Minister of Agriculture Umer Hussien said the tax holiday will greatly contribute to the expansion of mechanized farming which currently stands at less than 10 percent in Ethiopia.
“Directive has been prepared on how the tax exemption would be used for intended purposes after consultations between the Ministries of agriculture, finance, and revenues, Umer said.
The tax holiday intends to allow farmers to have access to the necessary machines to help them increase the quantity and quality of their produces by reducing wastage of foods from the farm to the table.
The agricultural inputs include those machines to be used for farming, irrigation, livestock development harvest, transportation, hoarding, and other services among others, the minister said
The machinery will be exempted from all taxes including custom, excise, withholding and surtaxes.
The government’s decision to lift import taxes on agricultural products opens a new chapter in Ethiopia’s agriculture sector is expected to attract university graduates to engage in the Ethiopian farming business.
Ethiopian agricultural export goods face quality problems and often command lower prices due to the inferior technologies applied to produce them.
The use of modern agricultural inputs will help Ethiopian farmers and pastoralists to produce standardized and high quality of products and an additional 25 million quintals of yield, the minister said.
In general, the lifting of import tax aims at reducing wastages of agricultural products in pre, during and post-harvest and save a total of 140 billion birr.
Meanwhile, the council of ministers on Saturday approved a bill providing for the introduction of federal government projects administration and management policy. The policy will help the government to supervise national projects and follow their accomplishments based on allocated budget and time frame.
After an in-depth discussion, the Council referred the draft bill to the parliament for approval.
The Council also sent to the parliament the bill tabled by the Attorney General to approve the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.
It was noted that the approval of the Convention would contribute a lot towards increasing foreign direct investment flow to the country through reducing investment risks.
The Council also permitted to take effect the draft regulation tabled by the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum for the re-establishment of the Ethiopian Mineral, Petroleum and Biofuel Corporation.
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