MRA takes on Lilongwe businesses on BMS

The Malawi Revenue Authority jointly with the Lilongwe City Council on Friday, 7^th January 2022 conducted a half -day sensitization workshop on Block Management System (BMS) with different businesses drawn from the city’s Central Business District (CBD). The main objective of the workshop was to drill the participants on the new concept which MRA plans to implement in the city.

In his opening remarks and presentation, Mc Hizzal Kawanga, Manager Taxpayer Education, encouraged the participants to embrace the system as it was intended to bring services like tax registration, payment and education closer to the taxpayer.

He said that some neighbouring countries like Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia that introduced the concept some years ago have achieved more in terms of development projects due to the system.

Which is why, he added, MRA was implementing BMS in the country in order to enlist many Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME) into the tax net and enable them to positively contribute to national development by paying taxes.

Commenting later, Dorothy Msefula, BMS Manager, added that recent studies had revealed that there were over 1.6 million MSMEs enterprises operating in the country but only 2% of them were active taxpayers.

“This is a worrisome situation because only few people should the tax burden but the system will address such gaps,” she added.

Speaking on behalf of the participants, Ernest Chigona, thanked MRA for introducing the concept in Malawi and appealed to the Authority to conduct a lot of civic education as some people might construe BMS as a new tax.

MRA piloted and implemented BMS in Blantyre in 2021 and is expected to implement the concept in other cities like Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba before extending to all parts of the country.