MRA collects K749bn in H1
The Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) is continuing to register positive performance, as evidenced by its over-collection, beating its set targets in the past two quarters.
The authority has managed to collect K749 billion in the first half of the 2022-2023 financial year.
This is against the projected target of K742 billion, with a surplus of K6.7 billion, representing a 101% performance rate.
This is being described as a very good performance considering the tough economic environment the country has been going through.
According to the MRA Commissioner General John Bizwick, despite the current tough economic situation, the organization has been able to beat its targets as directed by the Ministry of Finance.
“Generally the performance has been good in the first, second and third quarters because of few areas which we did well, like import duty expect in September and also provisional and other taxes especially the income taxes attributable mainly to financial and telecom sectors which have generally done well,” he said.
He added that MRA will not relax but to continue intensifying efforts to remain on the right track of collecting more taxes towards the government’s coffers.
“There are few measures that we will continue to put in place so that we continue with this good performance, one is to do with minimizing smuggling. In addition, we are intensifying on audits so that we discover maybe some areas where there was elements of tax avoidance or tax evasion,” He added.
Bizwick therefore disclosed that it is evident that the tax collector is performing beyond expectations which should be regarded as good news for the citizenry and the country as a whole.
Meanwhile, Bizwick has expressed hope that MRA will be able to beat the project annual target which is currently standing at K1.5 trillion as per directed by the government through the Ministry of Finance.
The tax authority is confident that the H1 performance is right step in its efforts to collect enough revenue for the ailing government purse.
The country’s successful implementation of its budget largely depends on financial resources collected by the MRA, in form of different taxes which fund various social programs and projects in a number of sectors.
These include health, education, agriculture, and infrastructure projects.
Although the tax collector is boasting of such as performance, it is somehow overshadowed by the various economic challenges facing the country such as the forex shortage and the lack of stable fuel supplies.
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