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Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has surpassed its gross revenue target for April 2018 by 9,18 percent to record $361,88 million.

In a statement, Zimra attributed the strong performance to a number of measures the authority put in place to improve revenue collection.

“Gross collections for the month amounted to $361,88 million, which translates to 9,18 percent above the targeted $331.47 million.

“After deducting refunds of $10,06 million, net collections stood at $351,83 million. This gives a positive variance of 6,14 percent against the target of $331,47 million,” said the authority.

“Net revenue collections in April 2018 improved by 41,92 percent from the $247,90 million that was collected during the same period in 2017.

“This improvement is attributed to the authority’s revenue enhancement initiatives as well as the improved operating business environment.”

During the period under review, there was a general improvement in the performance of revenue heads with companies, VAT on imports, Customs Duty and other taxes recording a positive performance and surpassing set targets. The companies’ revenue head was the highest performer with collections rising to $46,89 million against a target of $13,70 million.

“Improved profitability by some companies coupled with compliance checks triggered the revenue head to the massive growth.

“Spill overs from the first QPD (Quarterly Payment Date) as well as payments from companies with special arrangement QPD also enhanced revenue collections during the month, hence the sharp spike in growth,” said Zimra.

On the flipside, the authority said, individuals, VAT on local sales and excise duty performed below expectations although all revenue heads performed much better when compared to the same period last year. A total of $33,83 million was collected in April for gross Customs Duty, inclusive of refunds of $110,228 against a target of $29,36 million, resulting in a positive variance of 14,84 percent.

This reflects a marked growth of 57,38 percent when compared to the same period in 2017 where Zimra collected $21,42 million.

Revenue collections of $65 million from excise duty were 5,95 percent below the targeted $69,11 million.

“However, a 21,11 percent increase in revenue collections was recorded from the $53,67 million that was collected during the same period last year.

“Major contributors to the revenue head were fuel (68,79 percent), beer (14,98 percent) and airtime (10,46 percent),” said Zimra.

“The performance of the revenue head can be attributed to low disposable incomes for the consumption of excisable goods as well as lower than anticipated fuel imports.”

Zimra said it continues to implement revenue enhancement measures coupled with the use of technology to plug revenue leakages while the spirited fight against corruption was expected to go a long way in securing fiscal revenue.

“Compliance activities will also include sector based projects, which will focus on educating the taxpayers and assisting them to improve compliance levels,” it said.

In the first quarter of the year, Zimra surpassed its target for the period by an excess of $84 million while gross collections were 8,1 percent above the target of $1,029 billion. Of late, the tax collector has been enhancing the use of electronic services platform (Asycuda-Automated System for Customs Data) and fiscal devices to improve revenue collection.

@okazunga