Kigali May 31, 2018- The Government of Rwanda and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) signed a financing agreement worth USD 6 million equivalent to Frw 5.1 billion for the Project for Enhancement of Electronic Billing Machines (EBM) system and Development of Taxpayer Relationship Management System.

In 2017, KOICA and Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) introduced the upgraded EBM (EBM Version 2.0), a software-based electronic billing system to further improve the collection of value-added tax (VAT), reduce the cost of doing business, ease compliance, as well as enhance service delivery to taxpayers.

EBM Version 2.0 offers various benefits to the users by allowing them to track transactions at any point in time with better communication between devices used by one taxpayer and devices along the supply chain. It keeps taxpayer records and provides a number of accounts needed by taxpayers in books of accounts. These include sale, purchase, importation, client and supplier accounts among others. In addition, EBM 2.0 offers a possibility to RRA to extend maintenance service and support remotely.
Based on the impressive performance of the EBM Version 2.0 in 2017, KOICA and RRA extended the pilot-basis first-phase project to the full-scale second-phase project which will be implemented from 2018 to 2020.
The new project aims to develop various versions of EBM software to fit various operating systems with a multi-channel cashless payment management module and also simplify the EBM software interface to make it more intuitive and user-friendly for small businesses. In addition, the project will develop a taxpayers’ online one-stop tax portal meant for 360-degree view of taxpayers’ tax accounts, rights and obligations.
“Based on the impressive performance of the EBM Version 2.0 in 2017, KOICA and the Government of Rwanda decided to extend the pilot-basis first-phase project to the full-scale second-phase project. This phase will allow users to track transaction and stock levels at any point in time with better communication between devices used by one taxpayer and devices along the supply chain.” Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana said.
“This second phase is the concretization of a long-standing strong collaboration between RRA and KOICA. It will help RRA in its quest to modernize service delivery, increase taxpayers’ base, and reduce non-compliance rate with the ultimate aim of increasing the ratio of revenue collected over the national budget”, said Pascal Bizimana Ruganintwali, Deputy Commissioner General of Rwanda Revenue Authority.
“I believe that this project attributes to the realization of the vision and goals of Rwanda. Indeed, a stable source of revenue is essential for achieving sustainable development. Talking of achieving sustainable development is easy. But what we need is tangible instruments to make it possible. I hope this upgraded EBM Version 2.0 will be of tangible value in contributing to the long-term development of Rwanda”, Lee Byung-hwa, the Country Director of KOICA added.
Korea supports different areas in Rwanda including Education Technical and Vocational Education and Training Programme (TVET), Agriculture, and Information and communications technology (ICT).