The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority  (Zimra) has announced thst it collected $5.3 billion in taxes last year.

The 2018 revenues were a significant improvement from $3.98 billion, largely attributable to the introduction of a two  percent tax on electronic transactions introduced last October.

Tax collections account for over 95 percent of the State’s budget revenue.

Analysis of the revenue figures shows that all key tax heads registered a positive growth with excise duty, at $908 million being the biggest contributor to collections last year.

“This positive performance is attributed in part, to the revision of  the Intermediate Money Transfer Tax (IMTT), price effect and improved  efficiency and effectiveness of the Zimra team, as well as enhanced  compliance level from taxpayers,” said Zimra in its final 2018  report.

“Most of the revenue heads registered growth in collections with Intermediate Money Transfer Tax introduced in October 2018 growing by 848.30 percent compared to $18.69 million collected in 2017. The spike  in the graph indicates the impact of the policy change on the IMTT rate.”

The $5.3 billion collections for 2018 amounted to 20.57 percent of Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product.

The country had set a target of $4.3 billion for the tax collector for 2018, which it surpassed by 24.71 percent.

The tax collector also benefited from increased demand for petroleum products during the period under review.

“The demand for petrol and diesel was heightened by cross boarder  travelers who preferred to fuel in Zimbabwe due to its flexible exchange  rate of Real Time Gross Settlements,” noted the taxman.

“Petrol imports increased by 39.92 percent from 407.49 million litres  in 2017 to 570.17 million litres in 2018 whilst diesel imports increased  by 26.84 percent from 834.40 million litres in 2017 to 1.06 billion  litres in 2018.”