By George Banda:
Sole tax collector, Malawi Revenue Authority(MRA) says it will expand its Flexible Anti Smuggling Team (FAST) operations as it seeks to control rampant smuggling in the country.
MRA commissioner general John Bizwick, made the remarks in Mangochi recently during a two-day 2023/24 New Tax Measures media training of the members of the Association of Business Journalists (ABJ).
Bizwick said among other initiatives that the public tax collector has undertaken, it will increase permanent road blocks to curb the malpractice.
“Soon we are increasing our road blocks across the country to 11, from the current 4 permanent road blocks namely Lirangwe, Ludzi, Chilumba and Nanthenje” said Bizwick.
He said:”As MRA we are trying to deal with illegal imports at the same time some of the road blocks will be targeting illegal exports of farm produce”.
” We are also currently planning to change our informant scheme,as it was taking longer to pay informants a development which was enabling the informants to start now working with the smugglers,” added Bizwick.
The commissioner general also disclosed that by September this year,MRA is expected to receive anti smuggling drones it procured with the support from the world bank.
Meanwhile MRA has widening the tax net by introducing new initiatives to meet the projected K 2.111 trillion in the 2023/24 financial year.
Among the implemented initiatives, MRA will now start collecting Pay As You Earn(PAYE) from Malawians working in embassies and foreign missions.
