Frauds cause significant drop in Burkina Faso's 2015 tax revenues

Tax fraud and noncompliance in Burkina Faso has caused a drop of 3 billion CFA Francs (5.2 million U.S. dollars) in tax revenues in 2015, Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba told Parliament on Friday in Ouagadougou.

He explained the decrease of revenues resulted in 0.4 percent contraction of VAT contribution in gross domestic product (GDP), a drop of 0.3 percent of import duties in GDP and 0.5 percent decline of corporate tax in GDP over the period considered.

The outstanding public debt of the country amounted to 2,072.87 billion CFA Francs (3.52 billion USD) in 2015, against 1,935.94 billion CFA Francs (3.29 billion USD) a year earlier, he added.

The average annual inflation stands at 0.9 percent in 2015, against minus 0.3 percent in 2014 whereas a maximal norm of 3 percent is accepted at the West African Economic and Monetary Union sub-regional level.

The prime minister further informed the ratio salary mass and tax revenues lifted up from 46.5 percent to reach 49.6 percent in 2015.

Meanwhile, the ratio of current expenditures and tax revenues increased of 9 points, going from 94 percent in 2014 to 103 percent in 2015.