Yesterday, members of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) adopted a bill to amend two provisions of the complementary budget law for the current fiscal year.

The first amendment is meant to eliminate penalties applied to private citizens or companies who are late in repaying the rent for goods and services of public authorities in the field of construction and public works.

The second revision aims at prolonging the period during which citizens can benefit from tax reconciliation measures that facilitate the payment of accumulated taxes from July 31 to September 30. It should be noted that the computer database that stores information for all those who haven’t fulfilled their tax obligations recently crashed, and was offline for more than a month and a half. The malfunction influenced the government’s decision to extend the period in which Tunisians can rectify their tax situation, explained the Deputy Minister of Finance Slim Besbes during an interview with TAP.

Through the existing tax reconciliation scheme, Besbes claimed that the government has currently generated 70 million dinars, and 22,000 citizens have applied for regularization of their situation regarding accumulated debts. However, Besbes noted that these measures cannot be extended further until the end of 2012, considering the urgent need to raise cash to finance the state budget.