FIJI REVENUE & CUSTOMS AUTHORITY
sUVA
The Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority has surpassed its target by $92million for the first seven months of this year.
The revenue collection to July totaled $1.144 billion, which was an improvement of 15.7 per cent over 2013. Last year’s collection as at July totaled $988.6m.
FRCA chief executive, Jitoko Tikolevu said: “The revenue growth to July is one of the highest in the last 10 years.
“This is despite the fact that we have adopted a new tax regime, which involved major tax cuts and the broadening of the tax base.”
Consistent with the 2014 Budget expectations, Value Added Tax was the major contributor to the Government coffers with collection totaling $438m.
Revenue from Income Tax totaled $233m while trade taxes totaled $266m. Other taxes such as Service Turnover Tax, Fish Levies, Departure Tax, Stamp Duty and Capital Gains Tax contributed $207m.
In order to support the private sector activity, $183.7m was issued as VAT refunds as at July.
“Although both the revenue and the economy are on a high growth part, it can be said that revenue is growing faster than the economy,” Mr Tikolevu said.
“Apart from the tax cuts and bold tax incentives, increased Government expenditure and investment have also contributed to the tax collection.”
Mr Tikolevu said the concessions offered by the Government were to help growth as well as improve the livelihoods of all Fijians.
Mr Tikolevu said the Authority still has to work hard for the remaining five months of the year.
“There are risks such as natural disasters, which can affect our revenue collection. While we are happy with the result, we still have a long way to go and we must work harder now to meet our 2014 target of $2.039billion,” he added.
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