MRA urged to promote information sharing culture

By Yamikani Yapuwa

Blantyre, Mana: Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) Board Chair, Vizenge Kumwenda has urged the institution to promote knowledge and information sharing culture both within as well as to the public.

He said this on Thursday in Blantyre at the 2023 International Customs Day commemorations adding that for the authority to do its job properly, different departments have to work together as one unit and communication is key to achieving that.

“Outside of MRA, for it to do its job it has to interact and interface with different stakeholders domestically and internationally.

“At domestic level, it works with clearing agents, banks, ICT companies, immigration and police among others and they need to collaborate. Effective collaboration requires knowledge and information sharing.

“Internationally, MRA has to work with its counterpart’s organisations in neighboring countries and knowledge and information moves both ways,” Kumwenda said.

He urged MRA to translate its communication materials and media programmes to local languages to ensure that they reach a large audience from the informal sector.

“Some people from the informal sector may not understand English such that if you translate that into Chichewa, Yao, Tumbuka and Sena they will understand better.

“It means that when they are engaging the officers, the engagement will be effective and MRA will be able to reach out to much bigger audience than restricting to English,” he said.

MRA’s Director General, John Bizwick bemoaned the issue of non-compliance as well as tax evading saying it was still a big problem in the country.

“Tax non-compliance is still a big problem in the country, it is important to realize that there are some sections of the community that just do not want to pay taxes.

“There are some that do not pay taxes not because they do not want but maybe they do not have the ability and opportunities to. Others do not pay tax because they have found some loopholes and they are others that do not want to pay because they are ignorant. But there is this group that just decides not to pay tax and those are core tax evaders,” he said.

Bizwick said the country should know that the more tax evasion we experience, the more it affects the country’s foreign exchange position as all that tax that was evaded ends up in the evaders buying foreign exchange.