In an effort to enhance collaboration and strengthen partnership for efficient administration of Government’s incentive policies and to support economic growth and improve tax compliance in the agricultural sector, the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

The MOU was signed by the Acting Chief Executive Officer of FRCS Ms. Fay Yee and the Permanent Secretary of Agriculture, Vinesh Kumar.  The MOU is a mutual commitment in complimenting each other’s roles in particular the administration of agricultural incentives and concessions.

The agriculture sector plays an important role in Fiji’s economy providing employment and opportunities for sustaining livelihoods for many Fijians. The Fijian Government has introduced a number of incentives and pro-growth policies to encourage economic development and growth in the agriculture sector.  These incentives are administered by both FRCS and MoA.

According to Ms. Yee, the MOU formalizes a partnership between the two agencies to collaboratively work together to share information and improve service delivery. This will allow FRCS to serve our customers better in the processing of applications for agricultural incentives and concessions as well as the facilitation of customs clearance related to agricultural imports and exports.

“The MOU will also help farmers, exporters, investors and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector become better informed on the various available concessions and incentives as well as their tax obligations,” she said.

Ministry of Agriculture Permanent Secretary, Vinesh Kumar said the MOU allowed both the Ministry and FRCS to share information, facilitate better service delivery, support better decision making, and increase the ease of access to services.

The collaboration would greatly assist farmers, exporters as well as investors in the growth of the Fijian agricultural sector, he added. 

“The Ministry of Agriculture continues to provide support letters as a requirement by FRCS to those importers seeking duty concession in the agricultural sector. Importers are required to submit an application along with Bill of Lading and Invoice to the Ministry of Agriculture. The MoA AgTrade Unit verifies the application and evaluates it against a set criteria. Upon which a support letter is provided to FRCS to those who meet the requirements,” he explained.

“And for ease of business, this process is now online. Please visit the Ministry of Agriculture website and click on the Resources tab to access the online form or just click on https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQ6kQBx5UAqT91U_K84sWWdSHvKwfz-h0uzAwQhT6oXr9L-A/viewform to directly access it,” Kumar explained.

In addition, the Permanent Secretary says “Given the new norm, our effort is to keep most of this data sharing online. This also promotes the Fijian Government’s effort to modernization and digitization of its services to offer enhanced customer service delivery.”

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