ZRA pays out K6,440.5m in VAT refunds
By Staff Reporter
The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has paid out a total of K6, 440.5 million in refunds, out of which 51.2% has been paid out to major mining companies, authority Commissioner General Kingsley Chanda has announced.
Chanda however, said the net position after taking into account all the refund claims, was that the mining sector owes ZRA K11, 808.9 million in unsettled tax assessments whilst more assessments would be issued as and when new evidence unfolds.
In a statement yesterday, Chanda disclosed that the total outstanding VAT refund payments to the sector currently stand at K1, 173.0 million while the unverified VAT claims stand at K4, 806.9 million.
“It is important to note that before refund claims can be considered for payment, they undergo verification and credibility checks and even audits depending on the nature of the claim so as to establish their authenticity,” he stated. “In this regard, the Authority has issued out demand notices valued at K14, 673.3 million for VAT Rule 18 related claims and K3, 115.5 million for other invalid claims.”
Chanda said the authority would not deliberately withhold legitimate refunds and that there was no evidence of accumulating debt refund.
He said ZRA actions were intended to protect government revenue and eradicate fraudulent refund claims and the associated revenue leakages that had been going on for a long time.
“We would also want to assure the business community that with the new system of collecting VAT at source, ZRA is generating adequate revenues to service all legitimate refund claims. However, only taxpayers with no outstanding tax assessments will be paid. The rest must settle their tax liabilities before they can be considered for refunds,” Chanda said.
He said the authority was currently paying an average of K644.0 million per month with some months recording an increase of up to K800.0 million.
“During the month of November alone, we have so far refunded a total of K731.4 million, and we expect to refund another K300 million before the end of this month,” he sad.
Chanda remained optimistic about meeting the 2017 target despite some challenges being experienced at some of the borders that were impacting negatively on the flow of traffic in and out of our country.
