ZRA’S MODERNISATION DRIVE WINS $8M DONOR SUPPORT
THE Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) current project support from cooperating partners stands at US$8.1 million which it is using to modernise and improve revenue collection from all sectors of the economy.
These funds are supporting part of the ZRA projects whose portfolio currently stands at 30.
ZRA commissioner for modernisation and cooperate strategy, Dingani Banda, explained that these funds had mainly gone towards supporting the Mineral Value Chain Monitoring project which was also being supported by the Norwegian government to a tune of about US$6 million.
The aim of the project is to build capacity in Zambia to effectively monitor the quantity and quality of minerals from production stage up to the time minerals are exported.
“This project is also being supported by other counterpart funds from the Norwegian government, about US$6 million, Public Financial Management Reform Programme (PFMRP) about US$2 million and the Zambian government about US$2 million.
This is one of the biggest project support on one project that we have as a country in terms of projects being implemented by ZRA.
“We have been supported to an extent of about US$8.1 million as ZRA, this is the current portfolio that we have as at now and these funds have mainly gone towards support such as mineral value chain monitoring project.” he said.
Mr. Banda also explained that for customs, the project being supported by cooperating partners included the implementation of the national electronic single window.
He explained that ZRA had also been working closely with the World Bank group in implementation of reforms around the electronic single window project.
“In terms of project portfolio, ZRA has a large number and part of it is supported by our cooperating partners. There has also been a lot of support from the World customs organisation in terms of capacity building and technical training for the staff from various aspects,
“We also have what is called the Public Financial Management Reform Programme which is a basket of funds where donors have put in some monies and this is being managed by the World Bank, which are used for various modernisation reforms” Mr. Banda said.