THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) chairperson Stanford Moyo said revealed that the tax collector missed its revenue collection target for the second quarter of this year by six percent.
Net collection amounted to US$836,9 million against a target of US$886,2 million.
Moyo said the Zimra failure to meet its target was due to economic setbacks that led to the shrinkage of the revenue base.
“The first half of 2013 has seen the Zimbabwean economy being characterised by liquidity constraints, power shortages, retrenchments, scaling down of operations and company closures, among many other challenges,” he said.
“These economic setbacks have consequently led to the shrinkage of the revenue base, resulting in the revenue collection agency’s marginal failure to meet the set targets for the second quarter.”
A major portion of the revenue was realised from Value Added Tax, which contributed US$517,2 million, followed by Pay As You Earn which contributed US$347,3 million and Excise Duty US$235,5 million.
Moyo said gross VAT collections for the first half of the year amounted to US$590,4 million, with refunds of US$73,2 million.
“Net collections realised under this revenue head were, therefore, US$517,2 million against a target of US$535,7 million, resulting in a negative variance of 3 percent.
“VAT on local sales contributed 54 percent of total VAT revenue. The remainder was from VAT levied on imports,” he said.
The gross collection for the quarter was US$873,6 million.
The revenue authority’s failure to meet the target resulted in it missing its target for the first half of the year by a marginal 1 percent.
Net collections for the first half were US$1,66 billion against a target of US$1,67 billion, resulting in the marginal negative variance of the 1 percent.
Gross collections for the first half were US$1,73 billion against a target of US$1,67 billion, resulting in a positive variance of 4 percent. Zimra had exceeded its first quarter target by 5 percent.
“Net VAT collections increased by 4 percent from collections of US$498,4 during the same period in 2012. The revenue head’s performance was subdued due to low capacity utilisation and the general liquidity constraints in the economy,” said Moyo.Advertisement

“Liquidity constraints also hampered the performance of VAT on imports, as companies lacked adequate financial resources to import goods that attract VAT.”
Mining royalties amounted to US$81,1 million against a target of US$107,8 million resulting in a negative variance of 25 percent.
Other taxes contributed US$118,2 million against a target of US$101,2 million, resulting in a positive variance of 17 percent.