Parliamentary Committee hails MRA’s modernization drive
The Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament has hailed the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) for implementing various modernization initiatives, including ASYCUDA World, which have improved service delivery and revenue collection.
Chairperson Rhyno Chiphiko said this when the parliamentary committee visited Mwanza Border Station on Wednesday as part of a tour of MRA stations to appreciate what the tax administration is doing on the ground.
He said project implementation remained a daunting challenge in Malawi but MRA was a role model as it had successfully implemented the ASYCUDA World Project and other modernization initiatives.
“We are very happy with what MRA has achieved over the past few years. When we came in 2015, MRA was struggling and the Customs and Excise Division used to face huge challenges in revenue collection and service delivery,” Chiphiko said.
He said the committee was pleased to note that the modernization initiatives were already bearing fruits since revenue collection and service delivery had improved tremendously.
During the 2016/17 fiscal year, MRA collected K767.61 billion, beating its revenue target of K725.05 billion by K42.5 billion.
Commissioner General Tom Gray Malata said the tax administration had beaten its revenue target by K42.5 billion thanks to the ASYCUDA World Project being implemented in the Customs and Excise Division. Malata said the Customs and Excise Division used to struggle but it was now beating its targets.
“We have benefited a lot from this system and the excess of K42.5 billion came from the Customs and Excise Division. We are also investing in other systems like Cargo Scanners, Cargo Tracking and One Stop Border Post. Our value is in the systems and our members of staff,” Malata said.
He said MRA had also started implementing an Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) to automate manual processes in the Domestic Taxes Division.
“ITAS will be linked to ASYCUDA World and other systems and it would enable us to have a single view of a taxpayer. We are expecting to improve revenue collection and with ITAS we could collect much more revenue,” Malata said.
During the tour of Mwanza Border Station, the committee visited the site of the One Stop Border Post and Mwanza Border Clinic and witnessed a demonstration of cargo scanning and cargo tracking.
Apart from ASYCUDA World, MRA also launched other systems including Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFD), e-Payments and Quick Response (QR) Codes which are used for document validation.
By Wadza Otomani
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