The Commissioner General, Mr Tom Gray Malata, on Friday 9th December, 2016, presented a keynote address at a Tax Update workshop organised by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in Blantyre.

In his address, the CG commended CIMA Malawi for taking the initiative in directly engaging MRA on taxation.

“MRA is there not only there to collect but also aid the understanding of taxes. We are committed to sort out any challenges that may arise in the collection of taxes.

“As accountants you have the responsibility to ensure that clients and organisations are tax compliant. Accountants are there to ensure that tax evasion is avoided. Such a professional approach is what will sustain the existing relationship between MRA and CIMA,” he said.  

The CG was accompanied to the meeting by the Commissioner Domestic Taxes Mrs Nellie Jimu; Commissioner Customs and Excise Mr Fatch Valeta; Head of Corporate Affairs Mr Steven Kapoloma; Deputy Commissioner Customs and Excise-Technical Mr Patrick Kachingwe and Deputy Commissioner Domestic Taxes-Technical Mr Crosby Phiri.

CIMA Malawi Chairperson Tiya Somba Banda said the Association’s members are entrusted with the responsibility to advise and propel  business strategy and each strategy that an organisation pursues has a tax implication on hence the organisation of the workshop.

“We are supposed to support our various companies when it comes to new developments on taxes as CIMA members. Our clients have to get right advice from us, this is why we involved MRA so that we learn and get more insight about new developments regarding taxation,” Somba Banda said.

In his presentation, Misheck Msiska from Ernst and Young tackled a range of topics from transfer pricing, new tax measures to professionalism.

The workshop was conducted in an interactive format and issues regarding to taxes were ably captured and tackled by the MRA team.

CIMA Malawi’s first, the Tax Update workshop attracted management accounts participation from various public and private sector organisations among them; TEVETA, Action Aid, Malawi Accountants Board, Carlsberg, New Apostolic Church, Puma Energy Malawi, Ernst and Young, Illovo, Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi, Reserve Bank of Malawi, Northern Region Water Board, Old Mutual, Escom.