MRA launches Tax Quiz Competition 2022 in style

The Commissioner General of the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), John Biziwick, has said that the Authority will continue to explore more ways and initiatives that add value to the promotion of voluntary tax compliance among taxpayers in the country.

The remarks were made on Tuesday, 29th November 2022, when the Authority launched the MRA Tax Quiz Competition 2022 at a colourful ceremony in Blantyre.

Biziwick disclosed that MRA after observing that the Authority was wasting a lot of resources to deal with tax evasion, fraud, and smuggling decided to introduce taxation in the school curricula so that students should formally learn about taxation while in school.

For this reason, the Authority earlier in 2003 engaged the Ministry of Education and other partners to consider including taxation in the school curricula.

‘’I am, therefore, pleased to report that after the consultations that were made, taxation was finally introduced at the primary and secondary levels in Social Studies, Mathematics and Life Skills,’’ he disclosed, adding that taxation was examinable at the national level.

On this note, he informed the audience that MRA was conducting the quiz competition on a pilot basis as one way of strengthening and promoting the teaching and learning of taxation in schools and at the same time identifying the information, knowledge, and skills gaps students have on taxation.

MRA will then work with other collaborating partners to devise measures to address the gaps identified, he added.

“I am, therefore, very optimistic that things will go as per our plan, and beginning next year, MRA will be conducting the quiz competition annually and covering as many schools as possible, he hinted.

Speaking earlier, a senior official from the office of Manager South West Education Division in Blantyre, Edgar Kapenda, thanked MRA for conducting the first-ever school tax quiz competition in the history of MRA.

He described the initiative as a huge investment that will build a very strong foundation in the long run and enable the Government to collect more revenue. If this happens, he added, the Government will implement more various development projects like building school blocks and decent teachers’ houses across the country, among others.

The MRA Quiz Competition 2022 is covering sixteen secondary schools drawn from Blantyre and Lilongwe urban areas and will run from 29^th November 2022 to 9^th December 2022.

BY ALICE MAMBOSASA