MEASURES TO CONTAIN COVID-19 PANDEMIC

His Excellency, the State President, Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, has announced a 21-day lockdown with effect from 18th April, 2020 to 9th May, 2020 as a key measure to contain the further spread of the deadly Coronavirus in the country. During the lockdown, only essential services and law enforcement agents will be allowed to operate while non-essential services or businesses will be suspended.

In terms of the regulations governing the lockdown, MRA has been declared an essential service as it is responsible for collecting revenue for the Government. The revenue is needed to enable the Government to fund the provision of public goods and services including mitigating short and long economic effects arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
 
In compliance with the President’s directive, the Authority is informing its valued taxpayers, the business community and the public that its services will remain accessible during the 21-day lockdown period. In order to protect employees, taxpayers and their families, MRA will minimize face-to-face contact and exposure by putting in place a range of service options that taxpayers and traders can use to engage with MRA during the lockdown.

These include:
1.    Online return filing and payment
Besides filing manual tax returns at our offices, taxpayers are encouraged to use online services to submit tax returns during the lockdown. The Authority has created emails for taxpayers to use when submitting their tax returns for their respective stations such as ltofiling@mra.mw for large taxpayers office, blantyrefiling@mra.mw for Blantyre Domestic Taxes Office, lilongwefiling@mra.mw for Lilongwe Domestic Taxes Office and mzuzufiling@mra.mw for Mzuzu Domestic Taxes Office. A list of all emails can be accessed on MRA’s website: www.mra.mw.

Taxpayers are, therefore, encouraged to pay taxes online through the e-payments platform plus other modes of payments such as MO626, Easy mobile *322#, FDH mobile *525#, Ecobank mobile app and internet banking. Taxpayers are encouraged to make use of these online platforms available and avoid visiting MRA offices in order to minimize face-to-face interaction.

2.    Online taxpayer services

In addition to visiting our offices, taxpayer can have all their requests, inquiries and complaints addressed through online services. Taxpayers seeking tax services from MRA including tax registration, Tax Clearance Certificates (TCC) and inquiries will be assisted through dedicated customer service representatives in all stations. To ensure rapid response to taxpayer queries, each Domestic Taxes Station will have Senior Officers who taxpayers can contact by mobile phone, WhatsApp and email for different services. The contact information for each stations will be available on the MRA website and published in the newspapers.
3.    MRA Call Centre

MRA will have staff available at MRA call centre and you can engage them on *672#. The members of staff can respond to all tax inquiries.
The Authority is appealing to all taxpayers to remain compliant by fulfilling their tax, customs and excise obligations even during this lockdown.
For more information, you may contact Steven Kapoloma on 0888986200 or skapoloma@mra.mw

John S. Biziwick
COMMISSIONER GENERAL