Revenues Bureau of Addis Addis Allows Tax Payment Via Telebirr

ADDIS ABABA – Revenues Bureau of Addis Ababa City Administration partnered with Ethio Telecom to launch a TeleBirr-based tax payment system allowing small business owners to pay annual income tax using their mobiles.

EThio Telecom CEO, Frehiwot Tamiru, and head of the Revenues Bureau, Mulugeta Tefera, signed the partnership agreement on Tuesday that officially launched the system.

According to the two officials, thee system allows small businesses to settle their annual income taxes without a cost of compliance through the removal of intermediaries, making tax transactions more convenient and easy.

The agreement signing came more than a week after the initial launch of the digital payment system seeking to ease payment for small taxpayers on July 8, 2022. 

To date, at least 679 businesses have transacted their income taxes worth close to four million birr through Telebirr, Ethio Telecom said.  

The newly launched payment service currently serves only small taxpayers who Addis Ababa’s Revenue bureau categorized as Group C. 

The city administration currently has about half a million registered taxpayers, and the majority of them, over 300, 000, are categorized under Group C. 

Taxpayers from this group, who are also subscribers of the TeleBirr, can now easily settle their annual income tax using the payment order number sent to their mobile number via SMS over 7075 from Addis Ababa City Administration.

As soon as the payment is settled via TeleBirr, they will receive a payment notification SMS from 7075 as well as 127. The SMS can be used as a receipt number/payment confirmation, according to Ethio telecom.

The state-owned telecom firm launched the mobile-based digital payment platform TeleBirr in May 2021. Its subscribers have now reached more than 21 million and over 25 billion birr worth of transactions have been made through the platform.