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ZRA collects over K8 trillion as they post K426.6bn surplus revenue

ZRA collects over K8 trillion as they post K426.6bn surplus revenue
December 4, 2008

THE Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) collected over K8 trillion by October this year, exceeding the government target for the whole year by K426.6 billion. Government revenue collection target for this year was K7.75 trillion. ZRA commissioner general, Chriticles Mwansa, announced this at a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday.

He also said ZRA might not reach the targeted US$415 million tax collection under the new mining regime by this month end because the windfall tax had completely fallen off due to low copper prices on the international market.

Mr Mwansa said by the end of October, ZRA collected K10.597 trillion in gross taxes while the tax refunds stood at K2.415 trillion.

“The net tax take stood at K8.18 trillion against a target of K7.754 trillion, thereby registering a surplus of K426.6 billion or 5.5 percent above target,” he said.

Mr Mwansa attributed the K426 billion surplus to higher tax revenue collection, particularly under company tax, pay as you earn (PAYE), mineral royalty, medical tax, excise duty, trade taxes and medical levy. He said all other types of taxes recorded higher than programmed with the exception of domestic value added tax (VAT).

ZRA collected K3.6 billion under company tax, K168.5 billion PAYE, K40 billion withholding tax and K167.6 billion mineral royalties.

The authority also collected K176.4 billion excise duty, K273.7 billion import VAT, K193 billion customs duty, K14 billion export duty and K3.1 billion medical levy.

And Mr Mwansa said ZRA’s major revenue collections were from the energy and mining sectors with the latter recording K293.1 billion under the new mining tax regime from April to October this year.

Mr Mwansa said of the K293.1 billion, K126 billion was collected as windfall tax while K22.2 billion came from mineral royalties.

He said ZRA might not be able to meet the targeted US$415 million by the end of this year because the windfall tax had completely fallen off while collections from mineral royalty had drastically gone down due to low copper prices.

“When you calculate the windfall tax at current copper prices, it has completely fallen off. This will not be collected unless copper prices change overnight,” Mr Mwansa said.

He said ZRA might not get much revenue from mineral royalty because it depended on the bulkiness and the price at which it was sold.

Mr Mwansa said although all mining companies were complying with the legal provisions set by Government, some of them were not up to date in remittance of funds to ZRA.

By October this year, revenue from the mines stood at K7.8 trillion against the 2008 Parliament target of K9.1 trillion, leaving a balance of K1.245 trillion for November and December.

Notwithstanding the drastic drop in commodity prices on the international market resulting from the negative impact of the global financial crisis, ZRA projections indicated that it was likely to surpass its revenue target by about K100 billion within the remaining period.

“In this regard, we are intensifying our enforcement activities so that we can mobilise more financial resources for the government,” Mr Mwansa said.

He said this year ZRA had recorded successes in areas like the mordernisation reform programme that aimed at enhancing effectiveness and greatly contributing to sustainable and predictable national revenue.

Mr Mwansa said, however, that ZRA had over the last 10 months continued to face some challenges in its operations, particularly where smuggling at border points was concerned.

He said ZRA had continued to engage law enforcement agents to help fight the scourge which was a danger to the country’s economy.

Mr Mwansa said ZRA had put in place measures to improve enforcement and compliance across various types of tax.

The authority had also strengthened information sharing with other stakeholders which had resulted in improved detection of tax evasion.
[Zambia Daily Mail]

Categories: Headlines

Labels: CHRITICLES MWANSA, ZRA

posted by MrK @ 6:38 PM