Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has continued to register losses in its quest to collect adequate revenue for the nation due to some tax payers involved in cases from the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC).
ZRA disclosed that it lost 34.4 Million Kwacha in revenue from seven tax payers involved in cases from the Financial Intelligence Centre.
ZRA Corporate Communications Manager, Oliver Nzala said the institution is still in the process of trying to recover the lost money and a total sum of 3.5 Million Kwacha has so far been recovered.
“Therefore the 3.5 Million kwacha is the record for this year from January to March only,” he said.
Mr. Nzala added that a thorough audit will be carried out to ascertain the actual money that is needed and will later involve and discuss with the tax payers on how best to resolve the current situation.
“We are certain that tax payers involved will pay the money because we will engage them and make them understand why they are paying the money they are supposed to pay,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Emmanuel Zulu an economist said that the revelation that ZRA lost over 34 million kwacha is of great concern because currently the country is going through financial challanges.
“Zambia is having difficulties establishing itself in terms of its financial standing and with a wider financial deficit all the revenues are needed in the financial basket,” he said.
Mr. Zulu added that some pending corruption cases under investigations are also contributing to ZRA not being able to collect all the necessary revenue the country needs to develop.
He since called upon the Financial and Economical Crimes Court to expedite pending cases and resolve these matters so that ZRA can be able to revise the money.
“If at all there are issues between the companies and ZRA then they should all be resolved quickly and all prolonged court cases should be dealt with by the Financial and Economical Court as soon as possible,” Mr. Zulu added.