During the plenary sitting of May 5, 2023, chaired by the Right Honorable Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe, the Minister of Finance, Budget and Community Development, Audace NIYONZIMA was invited to present the explanatory statement of the bill to the National Assembly, which bill was voted unanimously.

In order to further strengthen their bilateral relations, to develop and extend their cooperation framework, the Government of the Republic of Burundi and the Government of the Republic of Turkey signed in Antalya, on March 11, 2022, the cooperation agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.
This cooperation between the Governments of the two countries is part of promoting their economic relations and especially to improve their cooperation in tax matters.

According to the Government envoy, this agreement constitutes an appropriate framework for economic cooperation and a basic instrument for trade, with the intention of abolishing double taxation and preventing tax evasion with regard to taxes without creating opportunities for non-taxation that is reduced by tax evasion or fraud.

By ratifying this agreement, Burundi will have established the cooperative environment in tax matters with Turkey, which will promote the intensification of exchanges that are conducive to growth and development for our country, which is in great need of foreign investment that will allow us to have capital and technology transfer.
Burundi will also have avoided and repressed the fraud and tax evasion practices that can occur between the two countries because such cases are largely based on this situation of double taxation by using the principle of territoriality or other elements to evade taxes.

As the Government of the Republic of Burundi and that of the Republic of Turkey already signed other agreements in many areas including:
1. Education field signed on September 09, 2015, (Protocol of academic collaboration between the Hacettepe University of Ankara and the Minister of Education, Higher Education and Scientific Research);
 Cooperation agreement in the field of scientific and Technological research, signed on March 7, 2017.
2. Inter-State mobility:
 Cultural Cooperation Agreement, signed in Ankara on June 13, 2017.
3. Political domain:
 Memorandum of Understanding in several areas of cooperation between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries which was signed in Ankara on June 13, 2017.
4. Defense Domain:
 Cooperation Agreement between Burundi and Turkey in the military field, signed on September 10, 2018;
 Military Cooperation Framework Agreement in training, technical and scientific framework, signed on September 10, 2018.
5 Security domain:
 Agreement on cooperation in the security field between the Government of the Republic of Burundi and the Government of Turkey, signed in Ankara on July 25, 2019 and ratified on January 18, 2021.

It should be noted that other agreements were signed in the economic and commercial field, agriculture and livestock field, signed in Ankara on June 13, 2017, diplomacy field, signed on June 13, 2017 (information technology field, archiving and diplomats’ information).
To further strengthen these long-standing good relations between these two states, Burundi opts to ratify this agreement to enable state institutions to banish and avoid double taxation and prevent tax evasion in income tax.