Mozambique’s tax collection last year greatly exceeded – AIM report

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Mozambique’s tax collection last year greatly exceeded – AIM report

10:58 CAT | 29 Jan 2020

Photo: TVM

The Mozambican Tax Authority (AT) has claimed that it greatly exceeded its target figure for tax collection in 2019.

Speaking on Monday at the border post of Ponta de Ouro, on the frontier with the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal, the General Director of the Mozambican Customs Service, Aly Malla, at an event making International Customs Day, said the target for the year had been 244 billion meticais (3.84 billion US dollars, at current exchange rates), but the amount actually collected was 288 billion meticais.

This was 13 per cent more than planned. Customs revenue, however, was less than expected – 70.3 billion meticais instead of the target figure of 73 billion. Domestic revenue came in at 218 billion meticais – much more than the170 billion planned.

Cited in Tuesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, Malla said the challenge facing the customs service is modernisation in order to achieve greater efficiency in controlling customs risk and tax evasion.

He said the Mozambican customs service is putting into practice recommendations of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), including the use of customs stamps on tobacco products ad alcoholic drinks, and fuel marking (the introduction of a unique identifier, in trace amounts, into petroleum products to prevent adulteration and fuel fraud).

“The customs service will attempt to develop a strategy to improve the collection of revenue this year, as well as the quality of services provided to users”, promised Malla.

Mozambique, he added, would follow WCO recommendations to reduce the time and cost of moving goods across borders, in order to stimulate economic activities.

Preventing commercial fraud and tax evasion, said Malla, “ensures that governments are not deprived of the crucial revenues needed to finance their projects”.

Source: AIM