Effect of Customs Functions Automation on Revenue Collection Improvement: Case of Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority

The Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) is the body responsible for collecting revenue from Customs duties and domestic taxes. In addition to raising revenue, the ERCA is responsible to protect the society from adverse effects of smuggling. The role of Customs functions automation is to effectively Improve revenue collection, Combat fraud, Provides statistical information, Encourages international trade, Speeding up customs clearance and Minimize administrative cost(united nations conference on trade and development,2016) etc. However, from ERCA annual reports, from media and personal observations, the researcher understood the authority was ineffective in Customs functions automation due to different challenges. Thus, the objective of the study is to look into the Effects of Customs Functions Automation in ERCA on revenue collection improvements. To achieve the objective, a24years revenue collection quantitative data were collected. The study adopted quantitative research approach and descriptive research methods. The collected data was analyzed by both descriptive and inferential statistics (simple leaner regression analysis) with SPSS Version 21.0 tool. The result indicated that there was a positive relationship among Customs functions automation and revenue collection enhancement. As ERCA atomize one Customs function, revenue collection ability increases by $2.17. It was thus recommended that the Authority should concentrate on effective Customs functions automation. Keywords: Revenue improvement, ERCA, Automation