Tax collections stand at $827 million for the first six months of the year compared to $740 million in 2012.

The Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority said this is historic as it has also exceeded its target collections by $30.1 million as they had forecast $797.3 million.

Chief Executive Officer, Jitoko Tikolevu said FRCA has seen a pattern of direct correlation of tax cuts and increased domestic VAT collection, which has been averaging at around 19 percent growth over the six months. 

Tikolevu said by cutting taxes, the government has indirectly injected about $53.1 million in the economy through increased disposable income and FRCA has established that a large portion of the income has been spent leading to increased tax take.

Based on this, revenue grew by 11.7 percent which is higher than revenue recovered over the last 10 years which was 8.4 percent.     

FRCA also said the increased revenue collection can also be attributed to the Authority's reforms and improved compliance. 

Tikolevu said their target for compliance driven revenue is $70 million and so far they have collected a large amount owing to major investigations which FRCA mounted at the beginning of the year.

The tax arrears collection has improved with a 20.7 percent decline in arrears level from $127.5 million to $102 million.

 
Story by: Vijay Narayan