THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has recorded an 8% below target for its revenue collection on a net basis, Commissioner-General Gershem Pasi has said.
VICTORIA MTOMBA
Speaking on the sidelines of the Customs Day celebrations yesterday, Pasi said for 2015 the authority met the target as it is within the 10% range.
“We don’t want to look at the target in isolation and how the economy has been doing because when the year began we were anticipating a Gross Domestic Product growth of 3,2% and by year-end it was 1,5% and that means the target has been set on a high note,” he said.
For the third quarter of 2015 (July to September) Zimra collected $878,22 million against a target of $964 million showing a 7% drop from $884 million collected same period in 2014.
The revenue collector said $265 million potential revenue was lost in three months due to the long list of supplies that have been zero rates or where under duty exemption.
Pasi said the authority was still owed money by companies and expect the 2015 amount owed to be higher. The authority last year was owed $1 billion in unpaid taxes from both corporates and individuals.
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“As for 2015 figures external auditors are working on them. We are a public entity and the figures have to be verified, but they will be higher than what we had last year,” he said.
“Companies continued to struggle in 2015. The route that we have taken is we would have to nurse the businesses. Those companies we are going after are the dishonest (ones) who give us assurances but they don’t follow it up.”
Giving her keynote address for the Customs Day celebrations Zimra chairperson Willia Bonyongwe said the authority has been influential in facilitating e-government and the country is on the edge of harnessing the benefits of digitalisation. She said Zimra has to date introduced a considerable array of innovative systems to make it easier for clients to transact with the authority.
