Zimra surpasses revenue target

THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) collected a net surplus of $350 million in 2017 surpassing its target by 17 percent.

In a statement yesterday, the tax authority said net collections for the year clocked $3.75 billion against an annual target of $3.4 billion thus reducing the projected fiscal deficit of $400 million by 87.5 percent.

“The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority exceeded its 2017 gross annual performance by 17 percent while net collections — after deducting refunds — were surpassed by 10 percent. The actual gross revenue collections were $3.978 billion for the year while net collections were $3.75 billion, which surpassed the target of $3.4 billion by $350 million,” said Zimra.

In the last quarter of 2017, revenue collections were $1.159 billion, exceeding a quarterly target of $880 million resulting in a positive variance of 32 percent, said the authority. Revenue grew by 30 percent compared to the fourth quarter in the previous year where the collections were $893 million, it said. As for the month of December, Zimra said it collected $473 million, exceeding a target of $342 million by 38 percent.

The authority said it realised a 35 percent growth in revenue collections compared to $350 million collected in the same month in 2016.

Zimra’s acting Commissioner General Mr Happias Kuzvinzwa assured the nation of improved revenue collection this year. He said they have put in place measures to ensure maximum collection of revenue.

“I want to assure the nation that despite the challenges that we faced over the year, the authority is still on solid ground. Business continuity strategies are solidly in place and going forward nothing will fall between our fingers because of our continuity strategies,” said Mr Kuzvinzwa.

“As we move into 2018, we will upscale and redouble our efforts to surpass the $4.3 billion target which is an increase of 26.47 percent from the 2017 revenue target. Zimra has already planned a response through the novel and robust strategies to enhance revenue collections in the New Year under the theme, ‘Total citizen involvement in paying taxes in full and on time’”.

The increase in revenue collection which Zimra realised has been attributed to a number of revenue collection strategies, which the authority implemented.

These measures include increasing the tax base through registration of new taxpayers, awareness campaigns to empower taxpayers with information about their rights and obligations under fiscal laws as a way of promoting voluntary tax compliance, fighting corruption, smuggling, tax evasion and all forms of underhand dealings, carrying out compliance checks, audits and borderline patrols to verify compliance with fiscal laws.

The authority has been consistently exceeding revenue collection targets since the beginning of 2017 except for April and June due to fluctuating mineral prices on the international market and the reduction of the rate of mining royalties on platinum. — @ PrinceNkosy102