By CASSEY KAYULA –
THE Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has collected more than K4.8 billion from Time to Pay Agreements which are as a result of the tax amnesty on interest and penalties launched in April this year.
ZRA Commissioner General, Kingsley Chanda said the authority is expecting to collect between K5 and K6 billion from the exercise by June 30, next year.
Mr Chanda reiterated that taxpayers were given an opportunity to clean their tax books through the amnesty exercise between April 24th and August 31st, this year.
He said in an interview that those that were unable to pay the full amount during that period, signed Time to Pay Agreements with ZRA which would allow them to go up to June 30th next year in making payments.
“We have so far K4.8 billion and the payments continue coming through, our last payments are expected by June 30th, 2018. So we are hoping that at the end of the entire exercise we should be around K5 to K6 billion collected from the amnesty exercise.
“The exercise has been excellent, that is money we would not have collected if we did not declare the amnesty,” he said.
Mr Chanda described the exercise as successful with other revenue authorities in the region intending to learn from Zambia.
He also said over 14,800 bank account holders had been issued with Tax Payers Identification Numbers (TPIN) as of last month as required by Government.
Mr Chanda said ZRA would by the end of this month roll out 2, 000 Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs) in Lusaka which would enable the
authority monitor transactions on real time.
“So the idea is at the end of the month, when the taxpayers are required to put in returns and make their tax payments, there will be no disputes,” Mr Chanda said.