Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority current chief executive, Jitoko Tikolevu, will be leaving the organisation in the next few days.

In light of this, FRCA board chairman, Ajith Kodagoda, has announced the current General Manager Taxation, Visvanath Das, will act in the CEO position in the interim.

He said this will be whilst the normal recruitment process is pursued.

Mr Kodagoda said: “The Board has confidence that he is capable of taking the organisation to a higher level.”

Mr Das joined the Authority in 1997 as an Auditor, and rose through the ranks reaching General Manager Taxation in April this year.

Mr Kodagoda said Mr Das has demonstrated his strong leadership skills when he was appointed at Executive Management level as National Manager Debt Management Services in 2012.

“One of the key achievements since he took over leadership in this area was the improvements in FRCA’s debt recovery, averaging 32 per cent above annual forecast over the past three years,” he said.

“Total tax arrears started declining reaching the $50.5 million mark at the end of 2014, which was about 50 per cent lower than the 2012 level.”

Mr Das has been closely involved in the preparation of the 2016 National Budget and finalisation of the Income Tax Bill prior to its enactment.

“He is technically sound in the field of taxation, and good attitude and willingness to take challenges,” Mr Kodagoda said.

“He has demonstrated good leadership of the Taxation Division and brought about positive changes with improvements to customer relations in the past seven months.”

Mr Tikolevu resigned from the position to take up a diplomatic posting as the new Fijian High Commissioner in London.

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