The Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), has expressed optimism that with new tax measures put in place by the authority, it will reach its given revenue collection target of K1.03 trillion despite having a few months period in the current fiscal year as compared to the previous years.

MRA has only nine months, from July to March, to meet its target in the current 2021/2022 fiscal year unlike in the previous years where-by the authority had twelve months period to accomplish its task.

According to MRA head of corporate affairs, Steven Kapoloma, the authority has among others put in place three main interventions to ensure they meet the target.

The interventions include the Block Management System (BMS) which is expected to be rolled out this month in Blantyre before taking it to other cities.

Kapoloma said: “Through Block Management System, we will be designating areas into blocks and every trader in that particular block will make sure that they are complying with tax measures by ensuring that they are registered, filling their returns and paying their taxes because we realized that many of them are noncompliance and through the initiative we will reach out to them.”

He further said the other initiative is the introduction of tax stamps to be fixed on various products such as bottled water and alcoholic beverages to curb the smuggling activities of such products.

Msonkho online initiative has also been mentioned as another initiative which will be enforced to boost revenue collection.

During the 2020/2021 financial year which ended on June 30, MRA collected K1.108 trillion against the target of K1.079 trillion thereby exceeding the target by K28.7 billion.