The players from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Mauritania, Cameroon, Ghana, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast and Malawi said unacceptable domestic and international obstacles to effective taxation for development poses a threat to political progress, sustainable economic development and poverty eradication.

In a joint agreement dubbed ‘The Nairobi declaration on taxation and Development’, the stakeholders from various organizations, institutions and networks noted that effective and equitable taxation is critical to the independence of African countries and the strengthening of channels of political representation and government accountability.

The stakeholders who also included representatives from USA, United Kingdom and Netherlands said they would work together to ensure reforms in the areas of revenues from natural resources extraction, domestic and international taxation.

They called on the governments of the various African countries to commit to full transparency on tax revenues and expenditure while stressing on the importance of tax compliance and accountability.

‘Having shared extensive research on the problems facing Sub-Saharan African countries, we call on our governments to remove tax exemptions for multinational corporations and wealthy and elite individuals,’ the declaration read in part.

They called on revenue authorities to simplify the tax code and to reduce the tax burden especially for the small businesses.

They called on the fiscal research institutes to investigate the feasibility of land value taxes as an important source of revenue to finance public infrastructure in Africa, in funding local infrastructure provisions and to conduct analysis into the benefits of Export Processing Zones to African countries.

The stakeholders who comprised representatives from the civil society, journalists, scholars and government officials noted that there were serious power and information irregularities in trade negotiations between multinational companies and African governments which lack capacity to determine appropriate prices leading to unfair contracts and therefore the African people have little benefits from extraction of natural resources in their home lands.

The said transparency was lacking in the mining industry across the continent which they noted increases the potential for bribery and corruption while undermining accountability and called on the African governments to audit natural resource bases before signing any mining contract.

“We call on our governments to strengthen legal provisions relating to contracts including measures to override stability agreements that prevent future governments from renegotiating contract provisions and including the limits to the length of the contracts,” they appealed.

They further called on the African regional bodies to explore regional coordination and harmonization of fiscal regimes and information exchange to challenge harmful tax competition in the mining sector.

They also called on the bodies to commit to South-South learning of successful tax practices in relation to mining and urged the governments to sign on to the Extraction Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) besides ratifying the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

“We are calling on aid partners to build the capacity of civil society in monitoring the activities of mining companies,” the stakeholders appealed.

They proposed that if arriving at a fair contract was impossible, the resources should be left on the ground for exploitation by future governments.

The stakeholders who met at the conference organized by the East African Tax and Governance Network (EATGN) further noted that developing countries lose more as a result of international tax evasion and avoidance than they receive in foreign aid and said there was need for policy coherence among aid donors to take measures at the national and international levels in order to challenge interstates tax dodging.

They affirmed the need for international and regional tax cooperation to challenge harmful tax competition and to stop tax leakages.

“We discourage the widely held notion that low tax rates encourage economic growth and development, and call on the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to include civil society in international processes to challenge tax leakages,” they said.

They further called on the G20 nations to involve African countries in international processes with regard to tax cooperation.

They too called on the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to adopt a country-by-country reporting of key financial information for all listed companies in order to ensure transparency among multinational companies.

With regard to the corrosive impact of financial secrecy in offshore financial centres, the stakeholders called on the G20 countries and the UN to move towards a multilateral agreement for the automatic exchange of tax information between jurisdictions and particularly the developing countries.

They also called on African regional and Pan-African bodies to initiate effective multilateral programs for exchanging tax information to combat tax evasion.

“We are calling on donors to invest in strengthening the capacity for revenue authorities and to provide technical expertise in monitoring large taxpayers and especially transfer pricing issues,” the stakeholders appealed.

They expressed their commitment in researching the impact of the current tax regimes and campaign for reforms at the international level to ensure that the taxing rights of African countries are not undermined by abusive international tax practices.

They also called on the African parliamentarians to take an active role in enhancing revenue transparency in the extractive sectors and championing for good governance in the management of natural resources of the continent.

Other appeals include calls on Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in Africa to play an active role in enhancing transparency on tax revenues and tax expenditures as well as monitoring and applying pressure for the implementation of audit recommendations.

The stakeholders agreed to work within the civil society to promote taxpayer education and compliance and called on other civil society organizations to follow suit.

They further expressed their commitment to continue with research and advocacy with regard to the impacts of tax policy on men, women and vulnerable groups.