The Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority and the Fiji Electricity Authority today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance the sharing of data between the two organisations.

The MOU will improve the coordination of data/information sharing and will contribute to strengthen the efficient and timely access of information.

FRCA chief executive Jitoko Tikolevu said they will now be able to extract updated and current information from FEA in relation to taxpayers and utilize this information to track those who have been evading FRCA for some time.

“The information/data received from FEA will also strengthen our tax compliance. There may be some taxpayers out there conducting businesses but are not registered with us. Through this MOU we will be able to locate them by matching their information from FEA database to ours”.

Under the Tax Administration Decree 2009, the FRCA CEO has powers to obtain any and all information pertaining to taxpayers as and when required.

FEA chief executive Mr Hasmukh Patel reiterated that information sharing between the organisations will assist FEA in updating its customer database and also the registration of customers who qualify for the Government subsidy for electricity that was announced in the Government’s 2016 National Budget.

“The Government subsidy threshold for electricity has increased from 85kWh per month to 95kWh per month for domestic customers. This subsidy will only be applicable for domestic customers with a combined household income of less than $30,000 per annum and usage of less than 95kWh of electricity per month,” he stated.

By Reginald Chandar