ZRA exceeds 2017 income by K1,500m

January 12 2018

THE Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has exceeded its 2017 revenue collection target by over K1, 500 million largely driven by positive performance by the domestic Value Added Tax (VAT) as well as the tax amnesty exercise which were introduced during the year.

And ZRA is this year targeting to collect K44, 667.5m, which is K7, 054.m higher than what was set for 2017.

During 2017, ZRA collected K39, 149.7m net revenue or 4.1 percent above the annual budget target of K37, 622.5m against the set target of K37, 622.5m.

ZRA commissioner general, Kingsley Chanda, explained that the total VAT collections, including those on imports were 46.0 percent above target in 2017.

Mr. Chanda explained that the withholding of VAT had so far proved effective in improving the performance of VAT.

“ZRA has increased its gross domestic VAT collections by 61 percent from K7, 582.72m in 2016 to K12, 190.87m in 2017 compared to an average growth of 13.0 percent over the period 2012-2016,” Mr. Chanda said.

He said the net domestic VAT collections grew from K96.52m in 2016 to K5,630.87m in 2017 which translated into growth of 5, 734 percent.

Mr. Chanda said the anti-smuggling operations were also among the factors attributed to the positive performance.

Mr. Chanda said ZRA handled 425 investigation cases out of which 83 were brought forward from 2016.

He said 94 cases were concluded during 2017 and K27.2m was collected in assessments and penalties.

“The ZRA handled a total of 23 cases relating to tax refund fraud and raised assessments amounting to K53.5m including interest payments,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Chanda said ZRA was this year targeting to contribute 17 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the 16.8 percent recorded in 2017.

Mr. Chanda explained that ZRA was confident that it would achieve its 2018 goals through tax policy measures pronounced by the Minister of Finance in the 2018 national budget.

“The 2018 target is set at K44, 667.5m which is K7, 054.1m or 18.7 percent higher than the 2017 target of K37, 622.5m. This K7, 054.1m difference is composed of tax policy measures pronounced in the 2018 national budget,” Mr Chanda said.