By CHARITY MOONGA –

THE Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has exceeded its tax collection goal for this year by about K1.7 billion.
Commissioner General Berlin Msiska said ZRA’s performance this year had been above-target as observed from its collections so far.
He said the target in tax collections was K26 billion but so far the organisation had collected more by about K1.7 billion.
Mr Msiska said this at a one-day ZRA and media institutions’ interaction programme held at Radisson Blu Hotel in Lusaka yesterday.
“So far we have over-performed by K1.7 billion from the target of K26 billion that we were given. With the remaining months, we are confident that we will collect more money,” he said.
Mr Msiska said that revenue collection over the years at ZRA had been very good.
He, however, bemoaned the fact that many people and organisations in Zambia still submitted incorrect tax returns, adding that the Government and ZRA were doing everything possible to improve the tax base.
Mr Msiska said ZRA would ensure that it upheld its autonomy as it carried out its role.
He appealed to property owners to voluntarily come out in the open and declare their incomes and return the correct taxes to ZRA before being found out.
“As ZRA, we will be very aggressive on this, and people should bear in mind that non-compliance can be very expensive,” he said.
Mr Msiska urged the media to be strong partners with ZRA in ensuring that people paid tax.