Tax collector, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) says it is optimistic that it will achieve the K1.528 trillion revenue target in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

The Authority’s Deputy Commissioner General Henry Ngutwa told Yoneco FM online that MRA has instituted a number of tax measures including administrative efficiencies towards ensuring that the projected revenue is generated.

“We will work on enhancing administrative efficiencies which have been the main contributing factor to our revenue success over the past two years,” Ngutwa said.

“So from where we are standing we are confident that we should that will achieve that set target.”

Ngutwa has however acknowledged that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is likely to affect the revenue collection.

He said: “There are definitely factors that will always negatively affect revenue collection, and the Covid-19 pandemic is one such, but Covid or no Covid we still have to collect.”

But commenting on the projection, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Cluster on Budget and Public Accounts Committees Gladys Ganda has expressed skepticism about the K1.5 trillion target in accordance with the current economic outlook.

“You will notice that the tax revenue target is very ambitious which honourable members felt that they won’t be able to achieve the target,” Ganda said.

“And if we consider what has MRA done for the past years you will notice that they are given targets that are not realistic, targets that are not achievable do it’s the same this year, the targets that are their and the growth of economy itself, are not talking to each other.”

According to Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Sosten Gwengwe, domestic revenues are estimated at K1.636 trillion, of which tax revenues are estimated at K1.528 trillion while other revenues have been estimated at K107.8 billion.