Zambia Revenue Authority aims at increasing levels of compliance

Zambia Revenue Authority in July launched an operation aimed at increasing the levels of compliance among revenue collection agents. According to Commissioner General, Chriticles Mwansa, the operation code named Osafunsa was driven by the large number of revenue collection agents attempting to evade remittances of the required 16% of value added tax (VAT) if annuals returns exceeded K200million. According to ZRA, agents would remain low even when their annual returns exceeded K200million. By opting to be categorised in the lower remittance category, agents would end up paying 3% rather than the mandatory 16% resulting in loss of revenue by the government. The ZRA Act requires agents recording annual returns of above K200 million to be registered as VAT suppliers and automatically become agents to collect 16 per cent on behalf of ZRA for onward remittance to the Government coffers.

According to the ZRA website, operation Osafunsa has targeted the Kamwala trading centre in Lusaka where penalties were imposed on defaulting agents. This according to ZRA has resulted in improved revenues as well as agents now personally approaching ZRA to pay their dues.