Angola | Shadow economy accounts for 60 pct of the total

A street market in N’dalatando, the capital of Kwanza Norte Province, Angola

Angola remains one of the sub-Saharan African countries with higher levels of economic informality, with the informal, or shadow, economy accounting for around 60 percent of the total, said the Secretary of State for Finance on Monday in Luanda.
Citing the latest data from the Ministry of Finance, Secretary of State Valentina Filipe said that the level of economic informality was worrying the Angolan
authorities and required “urgent intervention,” according to Angolan news agency Angop.
This, said the Secretary of State during a conference organized by consulting firm McKinsey and Company, does not mean the efforts of the General Tax Administration (AGT) should not be recognized as it has an important role to play in the formalization of the Angolan economy.
Filipe pointed out the number of taxpayers registered by the AGT, which between 2014 and 2014 increased by 198 percent, “which shows that we are moving in the right direction.”
The introduction of a simple, but effective, tax system and swift and efficient tax justice were also mentioned by Filipe as essential for the State’s revenue collection.
The Secretary of State stressed that non-oil tax revenue already accounts for 44 percent of total state revenue and that this trend should continue in 2016. “It could be said that the weight of non-
oil revenue increased because the price of oil is down,” said Filipe, but added that based on the fact that non-oil tax revenues increased by 80 percent between 2010 and 2014 “leads us to conclude that this trend will continue in 2016.”  MDT/Macauhub