Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) collected Rwf2, 332.3 billion in the 2022/23 fiscal year against a target of Rwf2, 250.8 billion.

The RRA Commissioner General, Pascal Bizimana Ruganintwali, on July 21, said that this represents an increase of Rwf81.5 billion, a growth of 22.1 percent when compared to the previous fiscal year.

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"The success was thanks to new system controls which increased efficiency which contributed an estimated Rwf27.1 billion in revenue,” he said.

He said that the extension of EBM for all – which added 33,624 new taxpayers – contributed an estimated Rwf7.1 billion in revenue.

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Other factors behind the increase in revenues include the improvement of follow-up on filling and payment of tax returns. These are automated and personalized reminders before due dates, phone-call, SMS, and emails. The filing rate on all core taxes increased by 5 percent as a result.

The measures also include supply chain analysis and data matching which had a positive impact on VAT and Corporate Income Tax. Broadening the tax base through data utilization has increased tax payers.

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Ruganintwali said that, on January 1, RRA started the implementation of a new operating model which involves realignment of RRA staff to better match staff competencies to RRA’s job requirements.

The real economic growth was 8.8 percent for July 2022 to March 2023, compared to the 6.5 per cent project.

Targeted revenues

As noted, RRA has a revenue target for 2023/24 of Rwf2, 637 billion which is expected to contribute 52.4 percent of the national budget – slightly over Rwf5 trillion.

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In the 2022/23 fiscal year, tax revenues contributed 48.3 percent to the national budget (Rwf4, 764.8 billion), an increase from 43 percent in the previous year.

"We invested a lot in digitization last year. We have set out several measures for the next fiscal year to improve outcomes. These include effective use of staff capacity via continuing institutional reforms and motivation measures, continued digitization of the tax system as well as new EBM enforcement measures,” he said.

The tax collector is also implementing a new method for managing TIN security.

The move of implementing the new purchase code system, comes after receiving repetitive complaints from taxpayers that anyone could use their TIN during the purchase of goods and services.

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"Reforms in taxes to facilitate tax payers could also help meet 2023/24 targets,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning has also announced that taxation on the sale of plots of land could be implemented.