Harvest season yet to boost tax inflows

With the crop harvest period yet to get into full swing, the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) has missed the March 2016 revenue target by K1.8 billion, collecting only K43.5 billion out of the K45.3 billion expected during the month.

The authority has in the past months consistently missed revenue targets owing to an unstable macroeconomic environment in the county.

MRA, however, expects revenue inflows to increase in the coming months as farmers earn incomes from their crop harvests, resulting into accelerated consumer spending and more revenue for shops and companies.

In its March 2016 tax outturn report published yesterday, MRA says it has cumulatively collected revenue amounting to K416.9 billion for the financial year 2015/2016 to date, K11 billion below the projected figure of K427.9 billion.

In the month of March, MRA collected a total of K21.3 billion under the income and profit taxes category against a target of K22.09 while the Pay as You Earn category registered a total of K13.9 billion against a projection of K16.3 billion.

MRA says the corporate tax segment registered a positive variance of K1.19 billion above the monthly target of K1.97 billion, a performance attributed to strong enforcement efforts by the authority on company tax assessment processes.

Import duty on the other side stood at K 4.29 billion, registering a 96 percent of the monthly target of K4.44 billion, reflecting a decline in volumes of dutiable goods in the month under review.

MRA deputy director of corporate affairs, Steve Kapoloma, said in an interview recently that the authority expects a peak in revenue collection from this month of April as the country enters the crop harvest period.