THE Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has appealed to the public to actively participate in revenue mobilisation efforts to realize the mission of making Zambia economically independent.
ZRA corporate communications manager Oliver Nzala said in a media report that the authority has noted that while it has made significant strides in improving revenue mobilization strategies, there are still areas where there are low levels of compliance from taxpayers.
“We will continuously improve in our actions towards the taxpayers, we will engage and we will listen. But we want to appeal to the taxpayers that they meet us halfway, be compliant, embrace the technologies that we have introduced, and don’t use them only when they choose to,” he said.
Mr Nzala said ZRA has further employed different initiatives to achieve the 93.6 billion target for the year 2023, including expansion of the tax register, enhanced taxpayer education and improved customer service.
He added that ZRA will increase taxpayer mobilization and sensitization, strengthen the taxpayer registration program, leverage technology, and boost tax education among others.
“ZRA has found it inevitable to initiate ways of creating enjoyable working relationships with its stakeholders as part of its total transformation drive. The ultimate objective is to position ZRA as customer centric to allow taxpayers to voluntarily contribute to tax.
Recently, we launched the Mobile Tax Offices (MTOs) as part of ZRA ’s tax education initiatives aimed at bringing services closer to taxpayers. Through MTOs, ZRA is also able to interest clients in paying tax through simplified tax education,” he said.
Mr Nzala said the task of collecting enough revenue calls for more productive partnerships for Zambia to realize full service delivery and economic independence.
“ZRA has been engaging various business players in different sectors countrywide to mobilise their support as influencers but also listen to the challenges they go through in the business environment as they ensure compliance.
Since one of the main challenges of compliance or tax morale today is lack of tax education, ZRA has understood the pains that affect taxpayer behaviour and attitudes and has tailored information according to the respective needs of segmented taxpayers,” he said.
Mr Nzala said taxpayers are therefore encouraged to partner with ZRA to augment avenues for continued engagement, feedback gathering and where necessary appropriate additional networks.
He said the information shared will support ZRA in designing solutions that will build business capacity and the ability for every taxpayer to contribute their fair share of revenue.
(Mwebantu, Tuesday, 11th July, 2023)