The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has exceeded its revenue target of K44.7 billion for the 2018 financial year by K3.8 billion.
The total Revenue collected reached K57.8 billion while total refunds amounted to 9.4 billion registering total net collection of K48.5 billion which is at 18 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) compared to the targeted 16.2 percent.
ZANIS reports that ZRA Commissioner General Kingsley Chanda disclosed this during a media briefing at Lusaka’s Taj Pamodzi hotel in Lusaka today.
Mr Chanda attributed the exceptional revenue performance to an improved compliance by some taxpayers.
“Infact during the year under review, our mobile compliance team made significant progress in curbing smuggling, our operations were targeted and driven by intelligence information and risk profiling,” Mr Chanda explained.
He pointed out that Value Added Tax (VAT) refunds will be a thing of the past once the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is implemented later this year.
“For the VAT refunds 78 percent was paid to the mining sector while 22 percent was paid to other sectors in the economy,” Mr. Chanda elaborated.
The Commissioner General however, said all legitimate VAT refund claims will be paid after forensic audits despite implementation of the GST after April 1, 2019.
He further said the enforcement operations conducted in 2018 resulted in 6,241 interceptions with a value of K2.8 billion.
In the year 2018 ZRA governing board approved the corporate strategic plan for 2019-2021 and the new plan has come with some changes among them the revised vision of being a world class model of excellence in revenue administration and trade facilitation.
While the new ZRA approved tagline is My Tax, Your Tax. Our Destiny.
Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe announced during the 2019 budget presentation that government will abolish Value Added Tax (VAT) and replace it with the non-refundable sales tax. .
Excellent!
I sense that if we can use money as a facilitator of movement of goods and services, rewarding genuine hard workers, and balancing the economic terrain or landscape to ensure goods and services are delivered across the country, there will be progress. Clearly refunds are a positive sign in any economy. Politicians, multinational scavengers and the percentage of jerks we can keep in prison are usually the opportunistic factor that will ruin this scheme of things! This looks positive anyway.
I cannot even remember when ZRA failed to beat their target ….run through the years back and u will understand what I am saying
If PF is able to collect over $330million, why plead with IMF or borrow from Jim to pay Jack the Euro bonds? Could it that if they paid Jack out of that collection nothing will be left for them to steal? Highly plausible yes!
ubufi ba PF US will catch you and seize all your assets.
If PF is able to collect over $330million, why plead with IMF or borrow from Jim to pay Jack the Euro bonds? Could it that if they paid Jack out of that collection nothing will be left for them to steal? Highly plausible yes!
ubufi ba PF US will catch you and seize all your assets.
Good!
Any improvements in the tax collection scheme is welcome. And I like the abolishment of VAT. Foreign Mine Companies have abused this “loophole” to avoid paying their fair share of taxes for far too long.
Too many taxes being introduced everyday. That’s why you always keep on exceeding your targets.
Because you you got used to subsidies.
All of it going to service Chinese loans, no benefit to Zambians, chipate pante govt
Jonny
You forgot the money leaders steal,government revenue being abused….
Understand economics – are you the only blind fellow who drives on good roads and think that they just found themselves there? If you want to be smart, talk about the high cost of borrowing due to corruption (exorbitantly high contract rates).
Taxation kills Africa! It only works in developed countries with systems in place. Africa need more money in private hands to speed up growth…. instead the government squeezes individuals to fund expensive non growth projects. Something like a fire brigade.
Is this net of pending VAT refunds. ?Current regime collecting at source means zra collections are higher in the short term with back-load of refunds to be made in the near future
Raising money is not a problem, unfortunately transparency end here and it’s now misappropriation.
Sir, the taxes you’re subjecting us to pay. one of these days you’ll leave that office of yours then you will feel the pain of these taxes, Just too much on us. 36% paye 16% VAT 5 % NAPSA, good that 17.5% excise duty on internet has been dropped
I think I need help from economists, here. If we exceeded the target, why do we have the huge budget deficit? Is it a carry over from past years?
Because the tax base is not big enough to paired to the needs of the country. For you not to have deficits, you probably need to collect ten times that amount. Mind you these a billions in Kwacha terms we are talking about here.
@ Yamba Yamba, so the problem is the spending is way above the income due to the borrowing, right?
The tax base needs to be increased instead of focus on current payers. Can we have those on lower incomes join everyone on PAYE even at 2% if all pay taxes then the compliance rates will increase as paying tax will be the done thing.
Also would be good to see a percentage of taxes spent in districts they’ve been collected in.