Attorney General Dismisses Tax Fraud Cases

Apr 13 , 2019

The Office of the Attorney General dropped 1,077 cases of tax fraud. The Addis Abeba City Mayor’s Office had called upon the Attorney General to drop the cases. Deputy Mayor Takele Uma filed the request at the end of last January following a petition signed by businesses in the capital and submitted at the Addis Abeba Revenues Authority last December.  The deputy mayor requested the dismissal of 1,640 cases. After reviewing the cases, the Attorney General decided to drop most of the cases that were under police investigation and pending at the courts. The Attorney General’s Office cited the value of the money involved in these cases, the economic and tax reform taking place in the country and the financial status of the accused as the basis for its decision. “The benefit from letting these businesses learn from their mistakes and get back to being productive outweighs the damage they would cause to the government and the public,” reads the letter from the AG to the Mayor’s Office.