The Malawi Revenue Authority says a total revenue collection of K60.4 billion in December, 2016 has led to the recording of a surplus of K6.1 billion.

MRA’s Revenue Performance Report says that the month’s target was K54.3 billion.

The December collection means the Authority has achieved a cumulative total of K377 billion against a target of K339.1 billion during the first half of this fiscal year. This translates to an excess collection of K37.9 billion for the six-month period.

“The good performance is attributed to strong performances in Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Fringe Benefit Tax, Provisional Tax, Import Duty, Value Added Tax (VAT) and Excise Duties,” reads the report in part.

PAYE had a collection of K19.5 billion, out-performing its target of K17.82 billion. This has been attributed to a favourable response the Authority received from taxpayers after a call to have remitted before closure of business for end of year holidays.

There was K19.3 billion VAT collected against a target of K16.7 billion. The report says this was due to strong performance both in Domestic VAT at K8.2 billion and Import VAT at K11.1 billion.

At K5.8 billion, Excise Duty over performed its projection of K4.7 billion due to huge importation of excisable products such as fuel.

Import Duty collection at K6.2 billion was 18 percent above its monthly projection.

The report further says Corporate Tax collections exceeded its monthly target by 10 percent as K3.6 billion was collected against K3.2 billion. This has been attributed to provisional tax which over-performed its monthly projection by 24 percent.