Staff Writer
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), collected an annual net revenue of ZW$181.96 billion against a target of ZW$171.9 billion to achieve a 5.85 percent surplus for the full year ended December 2020.
This result presented a real growth of 74.93% compared to 2019 collections after inflation adjustments.
The revenue collection performance falls within the authority’s strategic drive to widen the tax base through registration of new taxpayers.
“For this year, the drive to register new taxpayers resulted in an additional 21,623 new clients in 2020.
“These new taxpayers contributed $558.2 million against a target of $218.7 million,” acting Commissioner General Rameck Masaire said in a virtual annual general meeting yesterday.
Foreign currency collections for 2020 amounted to USD$787.85 million, the substantial collections realized after the RBZ authorized local trade using free funds by individuals and corporates through Statutory Instrument 85 of 2020 to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“Treasury appreciates ongoing efforts by the Authority to meet set targets, it is important to assess such performance against the maximum potential to collect revenues, in particular, considering the untapped potential concealed in various policies that still require full implementation.
“While we celebrate the positive revenue performance, it thus, remains crucial for the Revenue Authority to swiftly address policy implementation bottlenecks, particularly with regards to the Fiscalisation Programme and the attendant VAT refunds mechanism,” said Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, George Guvamatanga, who was delivering a speech on behalf of the Minister of Finance, Prof Mthuli Ncube.
Guvamatanga said treasury noted the resilience demonstrated by ZIMRA in the collection of revenue, notwithstanding the challenges associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic stating that revenue collections continue to benefit from the self-assessment system, buttressed by the numerous revenue collection agents that withhold specified taxes at source.
Six main sectors namely Mining and Quarrying, Finance and Insurance, Manufacturing, Wholesale and Retail, Information and Communication and Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing contributed 81% of the revenue.
