DATA-DRIVEN TAX ADMINISTRATION IS CRITICAL – ZRA CG

The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) Commissioner General Dingani Banda is pleased with the progress made in the modernisation agenda of the Authority which aims to improve tax administration and compliance in the country.

Speaking when he met with a delegation of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Bulk Intelligence Data Analytics (BIDA) project consultants, Mr. Banda said BIDA is a big milestone for the Authority as it will provide a platform for easy data matching and analysis of tax compliance patterns.

Mr. Banda added that BIDA is a strategic project for the Authority because it will help harness the full potential from the data that has already been collected in the first phase.

He said in an ever-changing business environment, operating in a smarter way requires that an institution should have the correct data for decision-making and carrying out business reforms.

Mr. Banda said the Authority wants to build a data-driven tax administration and the BIDA project is a critical undertaking. Bulk Intelligence Data Analytics (BIDA) is an intelligent system aimed at validating production data.
BIDA is designed to enable the Authority to have access to complete information about taxpayers which otherwise would not come voluntarily from the taxpayers.

In 2018, the Government of the Republic of Zambia signed an agreement with the German Government under the Good Financial Governance Programme – GFG III to be delivered through the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

Testing for the second phase, which will deliver a revolutionary compliance dashboard and reports covering Turnover, VAT and Income Tax, will start in November 2021.

Mr. Banda said gathering third-party data from other government agencies is also critical in having information that is relevant to taxation.

And speaking at the same function, GIZ Head of Programme, Barbra Dutzler said the BIDA project is the best performing in the GFG III portfolio.
She said many other countries have since shown interest in similar projects and that GIZ was going to use BIDA as proof.


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