Revenue Service Director Meets with Business Sector Reps
Director General of the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia Vakhtang Lashkaradze hosted the first working meeting with the representatives of the Business Association, where he spoke about the challenges faced by the Revenue Service (RS) and plans for the future.
Lashkaradze said that partnership and transparency are the paramount values of the RS and outlined the administration of tax law violations and their prevention as the major strategic tasks for future implementation.
“The Revenue Service does not inspect businesses in order to apply fines or other punitive means. On the contrary, we believe that risk-based attitudes will enable us to prevent violations and the business sector will be able to work in an appropriate, legal environ,” Lashkaradze said.
He then focused on the efforts made to raise awareness of the importance of paying taxes, noting that the RS works in close cooperation with a number of higher education institutions and implements cognitive as well as education programs annually.
Within the scope of the meeting, Lashkaradze outlined plans to update the official RS website.
“Bilateral collaboration and fast information exchange is very important for us. Our website is one of the best ways to do so and we will do our best to make it easily accessible and transparent for Georgian, as well as foreign customers,” he promised.
The meeting was held in a dialogue format. At the end of the meeting, on behalf of the Revenue Service, Vakhtang Lashkaradze expressed his gratitude to the guests and noted that the dialogue with the business sector will continue in future.
The meeting was attended by the Heads of 10 companies: the Business Association of Georgia (BAG), Georgian Employer’s Association (GEA), American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia (AmCham Georgia), Georgian Small and Medium Enterprises Association (GSMEA), EU-Georgia Business Council (EUGBC), European Business Association (EBA Georgia), Taxpayers Union Georgia (TPU), Georgian Farmers Association, Georgian Distributors Business Association and Gambling Business Association.
Translated by Ketevan Kvaratskheliya