The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Sunday News Reporter
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority is targeting collecting more than ZWL$172 billion in tax and import duty by year end as Government continues to open more business sectors in the economy that were closed in response to Covid-19.
In a third quarter report released by Zimra, Vice Board Chairperson Josephine Matambo said the momentum in revenue collection was set to increase in the last quarter of the year due to various factors that include the opening of borders and cross border trading with South Africa.
This also comes as Government has approved the phased opening of ports of entry.
“Momentum in revenue collection is expected to be gained in the last quarter of the year with the revenue collection target for the year having been increased to ZWD172 billion. The growth is expected to come from increased productivity with the opening up of more business sectors in the economy. In addition, the Government’s strategy to target low hanging fruits in various sub-sectors of the manufacturing industry is expected to attract the much- needed investment for domestic production.
“South Africa has opened its borders and cross-border trade is therefore expected to increase thereby feeding into higher collections in import duties. The weather forecasts are projecting good rains in the coming farming season; this boosts economic activity in all sectors as value chains can then be easily promoted.
The Authority has already started aligning its strategies with the National Development Strategy (NDS) 2021 to 2025 and will play its expected role in mobilizing domestic revenue for the national goals to be achieved,” she said.
Vice Chair Matambo said Zimra had surpassed its target revenue collection in the third quarter.
“The net revenue collections of ZWL57.00 billion for Q3 2020 were 27.16 percent above the targeted ZWL44.83 billion. Compared to the same period last year where ZWL6.42 billion was collected, nominal net revenue collections grew by 788.16 percent. All revenue heads registered positive growth in nominal terms,” she said.
