Zimbabwe’s projected fiscal deficit for 2017 has been reduced after the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) exceeded its revenue target. ZIMRA collected a net surplus of US$350 million reducing the projected fiscal deficit of US$400 million by 87.5%.
The country’s tax collector Commissioner General Happias Kuzvinzwa said, “I want to assure the nation that despite the challenges that we faced over the year, the Authority is still on solid ground. Business continuity strategies are solidly in place and going forward nothing will fall between our fingers because of our continuity strategies.”
Last year ZIMRA met some challenges as it suspended 21 officials on corruption-related conduct recovering US$120 million.
ZIMRA exceeded its 2017 gross annual performance by 17% while net collections – after deducting refunds – were surpassed by 10% according to Zimbabwe’s tax collector website.
“The actual gross revenue collections were US$3.978 billion for the year while net collections were US$3.75 billion, which surpassed the target of US$3.4 billion by US$350 million,” states ZIMRA on its website.
“As we move into 2018, we will upscale and redouble our efforts to surpass the US$4.3 billion target, which is an increase of 26.47% from the 2017 revenue target,” said Kuzvinzwa.
The country’s revenue collector runs 2018 under the theme “Total Citizen Involvement in Paying Taxes in full and on time”.
ZIMRA was established on 19 January 2001 as a successor organisation to the then Department of Taxes and the Department of Customs and Excise following the promulgation of the Revenue Authority Act on 11 February 2000. The revenue collector suspended Commissioner-General Gershem Pasi over a slew of misconduct allegations last year.
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