Convention will assist in validating true amount of export income

The Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority says the United Nations Convention on contracts for the International Sale of Goods will help them to validate the true amount of export going out of Fiji.

FRCA Director Corporate Services Fazrul Rahman told the Parliament Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence that when somebody is exporting something out of Fiji, that export income has to be declared in the tax return.

He say whilst they have highly compliant tax payers, on occasion their audits have revealed that the true amount of export incomes were not declared.

Rahman says the impact created by ratifying this convention will be significant as they will see the correct amount of income declared. 

He says the convention will improve tax transparency, record keeping and documentation will improve, provide cross border financial flows between related parties and provide clear value of trade.

Rahman says it will not solve the entire problem of under-evaluation of over valuation but it will bring some credibility in verifying the value of transactions.

He says close to 50 percent of taxes are collected at the border.