Zimra surpasses target

revenue heads registered an upturn, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has reported.
Zimra board chairman Mr Sternford Moyo, said revenue collections were performing well against set targets for the period, despite the constrained economic growth.
Total gross collections for the quarter amounted to US$618,9 million against a target of US$555,2 million.
Value Added Tax (VAT) and Individual Tax was the largest contributor to total revenues at US$242,4 million and US$134,1 million respectively.
This was against a target of US$241 million for VAT, and US$105,4 million for Individual Tax.
Zimra collected US$78,1 million in Customs duty against a target of US$70 million, constituting a 12 percent variance.
This was an improvement from the same period last year when US$66 million was yielded.
Mr Moyo attributed the performance of Customs duty to constrained industrial capacities.
“The Zimbabwean economy continues to absorb large amounts of finished goods. As a result, Customs duty revenue will continue to be significant as companies import raw materials and goods to improve capacity utilisation and substitute local products, respectively.”
Excise duty during the period realised US$62,5 million against a target of US$56 million, resulting in a positive variance of 11 percent. Collections rose from the prior comparable period figure of US$34,5 million.
The Zimra statistics show that duty on fuel was the main contributor at 26 percent, while beer weighed in with 21 percent.
The performance of excise duty is anticipated to improve in the outlook period as the economy continues on a recovery path and consumers of excisable products get more disposable income.
Companies contributed a total of US$60,2 million against a target of US$25,2 million, with the highest positive variance among all the revenue heads of 72 percent.
This was also an increase from last year, which yielded US$42,4 million.
The performance of revenues from companies can be attributed to improved capacity utilisation and the setting of the first quarterly payment date (QPD) on the 25th of March for the period under review. The revenue head is expected to grow for the second quarter as the second QPD will be 25 percent compared with 10 percent in the first quarter.
But other taxes, which underperformed during the period, included domestic dividends and interest, other income tax, tobacco levy, other indirect taxes and carbon tax.
Collections under this category were US$41,6 million against a target of US$47,2 million – an 18 percent negative variance.
This was attributable to a number of factors. Firstly, mining royalties, that typically contribute the bulk of the revenue through diamonds, faced challenges on the international market.
Secondly, some companies have retained dividends to re-capitalise their business operations, thus restricting revenue realised from the domestic dividend base.
But because the 2011 tobacco agricultural selling season tends to hit full swing in the second quarter, revenues from the tobacco levy are expected to improve.