MRA upbeat on 2013/14 tax collection target
Public tax collector Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) is upbeat that it will collect the projected tax revenue at K338.9 billion or even surpass it buoyed by, among others, the expected economic growth and efficiency gains.
The projected revenue is about 22 percent higher than the revised target of K276 billion collected in the previous financial year.
MRA director of policy planning Joseph Milner, making a presentation on annual revenue performance for 2012/13 fiscal year and projection this year on Friday in Blantyre, said normal gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 22.7 percent [five percent in real terms] while imports will jump by 8.3 percent.
“Efficiency gains will also be registered is electronic fiscal devices such as scanners. We intend to operationalise them,” he said, at a media briefing.
Milner, who is on secondment from the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), said MRA, will also engage an extra gear in its taxpayer education programme to sensitise the people on the need to pay tax and its importance to the country’s economic growth.
He said the availability of foreign exchange, which is expected to increase economic activities, will result in more collections of company tax, value added tax (VAT), import and excise duty.
In the 2013/14 Budget, Finance Minister Ken Lipenga announced that total revenues and grants are expected at K603.4 billion from K460.9 billion in 2012/13 FY while domestic revenues are projected at K363.1 billion, representing 60 percent of total revenue and grants, while K240.3 billion are donor grants, representing 40 percent of total revenue and grants.
Of the total domestic revenues, he said, non-tax revenues are estimated at K35 billion.
On the annual performance, Milner said the tax collector beat the target thanks to collections in Pay As You Earn (Paye), income tax, provisional tax, withholding tax and import duty, excise tax on import and domestic did not perform well.
He said Paye, which beat the target, did well because of salary increases in the second half of the year and also efficiency gains on the part of the MRA.
Company tax, said Milner, also benefited from the good performance in withholding and provisional tax due, also, to increased economic activity and the exchange rate adjustment in the second half of the year.
He said the excise tax did not do well because of the removal and introduction of excise tax on some products as a result of the alignment with the international standards.
Earlier, deputy commissioner general of MRA Crispin Kulemeka touted its performance, saying beating the target is no mean achievement.
He thanked the taxpayers for coming forward to pay tax willingly.
