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Walter Muchinguri Assistant Business Editor
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority will adopt a tough stance on clients who did not own up during the just ended tax amnesty as the authority continues to miss its quarterly tax revenue targets. In her preamble in Zimra’s revenue performance report for the third quarter board chairperson, Mrs Willia Bonyongwe said very few clients had heeded the call to regularise their tax affairs during the amnesty.

” The amnesty was meant to give clients whose tax affairs were not in order a chance to regularise them ended at the end of the quarter with few clients heeding the call. “ZIMRA is, therefore, going to leave no stone unturned in pursuing tax evaders who did not take advantage of this opportunity,” she said. The amnesty was initially introduced in October last year and expired in March before it was extended to June then September.

It covered all non-compliance from February 2009 to September 2014. Zimra missed the third quarter revenue target by about 9 percent after net collections amounted to $878,22 million against a target of $964 million. There was a 0,71 percent decline in net revenue collections from the same period last year were $884,46 million was realised.

The bulk of the revenue for the third quarter was realised from Individual Tax, Excise Duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) on Local Sales which contributed 22 percent, 20 percent and 16 percent, respectively. Net cumulative revenue collections as at September 30, 2015 amounted to $2,54 billion which is 67,54 percent of the 2015 annual target of $3,76 billion.

This is an 8,55 percent decline in revenue collections, compared to the same period last year where the cumulative revenue collections amounted to $2,78 billion.

Most of the money came in through in dividual taxes which contributed $195,3 million against a target of $203 million, followed by exercise duty which contributed $176,2 million against a target of $151 million, Vat on local sales that brought in $136, 2 million against a target of $161,1 million and Vat on imports that contributed $116,01 million against target of $104,9 million.