Foreign aid minister Lilianne Ploumen is to introduce taxes on development aid when material for projects comes from the Netherlands.

At the moment, the Netherlands does not pay value-added tax or import levies on material sent to developing countries.

In an interview in Trouw on Monday, she said this will be changed, although emergency aid will remain untaxed.

The minister said she will also ask pensioned tax officials to share their knowledge with the tax offices in developing countries. ‘A strong tax system collects more money which can be used to fight poverty,’ she said.

Ploumen is currently in Ethiopia for a United Nations meeting to discuss how to finance international development over the next 15 years.