ZRA exceeds 5-month target by K480m

Fri, 23 Jun 2017 10:33:08 +0000

By BUUMBA CHIMBULU

THE Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has exceeded its 2017 operational target for the first five months by K480 million, representing 3.3  percent above target.

According to ZRA senior corporate communications officer, Oliver Nzala, the development was against the 2017 operational target.

He explained that Parliament in the 2017 national Budget approved a revenue target of K37.622 billion, subject to the legislation of specific tax measures among which was the tax on copper concentrates and border crossing fees.

He said Parliament however did not legislate some of the proposed tax measures, resulting in a revision of the 2017 operational target for ZRA to K36.774 billion.

In April, 2017, ZRA also introduced the tax amnesty in order to provide relief to taxpayers on interest and penalties while collecting the principal tax. The authority has also adopted zero tolerance to smuggling and tax evasion.

Mr Nzala said in a statement that the authority was confident of meeting its revenue collection target by the end of the year because of measures and initiatives it had implemented such as collecting Value Added Tax (VAT) at source of which K1.454 billion had been collected from 1st January, 2017, to 31st May, 2017.

“The authority will also introduce fiscalization in order to have an improved level of domestic VAT collections through monitoring of sales at the point of sale,” he said.

Mr Nzala also said ZRA would soon conduct forensic audits on large mining companies to appreciate their various complex financial processes when generating incomes that was used for tax purposes.

He explained that the development would be done by an independent auditor.

“Apart from the decentralization of anti-smuggling operations, the authority has also recruited 45 tax inspectors in order to enhance revenue compliance and enforcement especially in the retail sector,” he