Africa-Press – Malawi. The Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) collected K355.11 billion between April and June 2022, representing a 98.85 percent performance against the target of K355.64 billion for the first quarter of this financial year.
The performance was mainly affected by MRA’s deficit in May, when it recorded revenue amounting to K104.7 billion against a target of K113.7 billion. MRA Commissioner General John Biziwick attributed the performance to late submission of public sector Pay As You Earn (Paye) tax figures from the Accountant General’s office to the Reserve Bank of Malawi.
He said this Thursday when he briefed the media on revenue performance for the period under review. Biziwick said foreign exchange shortages which affected import duty, Value Added Tax (VAT) and Excise tax, coupled with exemption of VAT on cooking oil and water weighed negatively on their performance.
“Despite the impact of these factors, we were able to collect closer to our target because of the revision of the Paye bracket which improved remittances in May and June and the increase in the value for duty purposes resulting from the devaluation of the Kwacha.
“We also did better because of the commencement of advanced income tax from May 2022 and increased enforcement through the Block Management System, debt collection and audits,” Biziwick said.
He added that the authority aims to widen the tax net, enhance trade facilitation, increase tax compliance, standardise and automate processes and procedures to sustain its performance. Biziwick further lauded dedicated employees of the authority and well-meaning tax-payers for the performance.
Presenting the 2022-23 National Budget Statement to parliament recently, Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe said the government is implementing the Malawi Domestic Revenue Mobilisation Strategy (DRMS) to increase domestic revenues by at least 5 percentage points of gross domestic product (GDP) in the five years of its implementation.
He said the strategy is aligned to the Malawi 2063 and its first 10-year implementation plan. In the current budget, domestic revenues are estimated at K1.636 trillion, of which tax revenues are estimated at K1.528 trillion while other revenues have been estimated at K107.8 billion.
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