Businesses in Limbe want more taxpayer education

Businesses operating in Limbe have called upon the Malawi Revenue Authority to continuously engage them on issues of taxation.

The call was made recently by the Vice President of the Maravi Asian Development Association (MADA) Karan Savjani in Limbe, Blantyre.

Savjani said that issues of taxation are technical and dynamic nature and as such it was very important that MRA should regularly engage businesses so that they seek clarification on how various taxes are operated and administered tom enable them comply with the law.

“I am, therefore, very grateful to MRA for organizing this meeting with us. We are looking forward to seeing more meetings of this nature in future,’’ he implored.

In his remarks, Mc Hizzal Kawanga, Manager Taxpayer Education, assured the audience that MRA was committed to holding regular meetings with various sectors in the current financial year in order to fill the information and knowledge gaps taxpayers have on taxes.

He, therefore, reminded the participants that, apart from holding interactive meetings with customers, the Authority also uses other channels of communication to convey information to the taxpayer.

These include the MRA website, TV and radio programmes, social media platforms, printed materials as well Toll-Free Number 672, among others, which businesses can utilize.

During the meeting, Ralph Banda, Manager Domestic Taxes Taxpayer Service, drilled the participants on how PAYE, Withholding Tax, VAT and Provisional tax are operated and administered.

The Authority also discussed with the audience the MRA Taxpayer Charter that was recently launched which they said will break the culture of bureaucracy when serving the clients.

MRA was represented at the meeting by Freeda Warren, Deputy Commissioner Domestic Taxes Office, Blantyre, Napo Simkonda, Taxpayer Education Officer as well as Banda and Kawanga.

BY NAPO SIMKONDA