ZRA exceeds 2018 revenue collection by K3.8 billion

The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has exceeded its revenue target of K44.7 billion for the 2018 financial year by K3.8 billion.

ZRA Commissioner General Kingsley Chanda has disclosed that total Gross revenue collections reached K57.8 billion while total refunds amounted to K9.54 billion.

Mr. Chanda  says the ZRA therefore registered a total net collection of K48.5 billion or 18 percent of GDP compared to the targeted 16.2 percent.

Announcing the figures at a media briefing in Lusaka ZRA Commissioner General attributed the positive performance to higher than programmed revenue collections under all three tax categories.

Mr. Chanda has referred to  direct taxes, indirect taxes and trade taxes as the three tax categories which posted surpluses of K216 million, K1.6 billion and K1.97 billion respectively.

He notes that the growth in revenue for the year to date period compared to the same period in 2017 was 24 percent compared to a 14 percent revenue growth rate projected the same period.

And Mr. Chanda says the enforcement operations conducted in 2018 resulted in 6,241 interceptions with a total value of K2.8billion while 990 detentions where made with a value of K225.2  million with a further seizure of 81 consignments valued at K50.6 million.

He has since described the authority’s performance in 2018 as exceptional across all corporate strategic pillars.

Meanwhile Mr. Chanda has announced an extension of the deadline for registrations of Tax payers Identification Numbers (TPIN) to 31st June 2019.

Mr. Chanda states that the authority has since issued a total of 805,754 TPINS as of January 2017 to December 2018.