INCREASED economic activity and back to back significant levels of revenue growth rates contributed to a strong revenue collection of $1.54billion for the past nine months, $99.5million above the target, according to Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority chairman Ajith Kodagoda.
He said revenue collection to September this year of $1.54b was an improvement of 17.3 per cent when compared with 2013.
The strong performance by the authority, he said, was also indicative of its successful tax reforms, improvement in tax compliance and reduced arrears level.
“Clearly, we can say that the economy is growing well and this of course is reflective of the policies that we had implemented in recent years,” Mr Kodagoda said in a statement yesterday.
“The performance is indeed pleasing and is a clear reflection of the hard work shown by FRCA staff as well as the continued resilience of our economy.
“The revenue growth to September 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.”
Mr Kodagoda said 21 per cent of the tax mix for the nine-month revenue collections was from income tax while the majority 38 per cent was from value added tax.
About 24 per cent of the tax mix came from Customs and 17 per cent were from others.
In order to support private sector activity, Mr Kodagoda said $231.9m was issued as VAT refunds as of September, which was 8.1 per cent higher than refunds last year.
He said the level of taxes owed was about $55.7m and 28 per cent lower than the level of taxes owed last year.