An economic expert has backed the ministry of finance’s plan to ask the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) to increase revenue collection from the initial around K80 billion to K150 billion per month.

When signing the reforms contract on Monday, Minister of Finance, Felix Mlusu, said his ministry has come up with the initiative as part of the reforms program to improve revenue collection at MRA.

The signing of reforms contract by the Minister comes after President Lazarus Chakwera presided over the signing ceremony of Reforms Performance Contracts for public sector institutions at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe on the same day.

Commenting on the development, Chancellor College based economic expert, Ben Kalua, said it is possible for the MRA to achieve such an amount considering that currently most Micro Small Medium Enterprises do not pay corporate tax to the government.

Kalua said: “Yes it is achievable, what is required for Malawi is to bring in the tax base because there are many Micro Small Medium Enterprises who are not paying any taxes apart from the Value Added Tax (VAT).”

Kaluwa further urged all business players to take part in paying their taxes saying it’s for their own benefit.

“Yes its very painful to pay tax but as for Micro Small Medium Enterprises this can be their long term benefit because they will have records that formalizes their business so that they are able to compete for government contracts and also chances for bank services,” said Kalua.

During the Monday’s presiding over of the signing ceremony of Reforms Performance Contracts for public sector institutions, Vice President who is also the Minister of Economic Planning and Public Sector Reforms, Saulos Chilima, said the reforms seek to achieve eight goals which include enhancing financial sustainability of the institutions.