1. Impact Of Tax Reforms & Government Policies on Tax Growth
Betrace Thawi-Malawi

2. BACK GROUND & PROBLEM STATEMENT
Tax collection understandably becomes the prime focus for national development of Both DCs and LDCs.
Over third of GDP in OECD is from tax revenues but less than a fifth of GDP in developing Countries particularly sub-Saharan Africa (Alan Carter and Ana Cebreiro (2018)
According to IMF report (2015), sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the world’s lowest ratio of revenue to GDP despite substantial progress in revenue mobilization over the past two decades

3. STATISTICS ON TAX TO GDP CONTRIBUTION (WORLD BANK,2018)
Country Name
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Angola 29 23 27 17 16 12 10
Burundi 14 15
Burkina Faso 13
Botswana 26 24 25 21
Cote d'Ivoire 11
Egypt, Arab Rep.
Ethiopia 8 7 9
Kenya
Liberia 19 20
Lesotho 48 49 51 58 37 35 46 45 41 34
Morocco
Mali
Mozambique 22
Mauritius 18
Malawi
Namibia 31 30 33 32
Nigeria 2 4 5 1
Rwanda
Sierra Leone
Swaziland
Seychelles 28
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
South Africa
Zambia
Zimbabwe

4. BACK GROUND & PROBLEM STATEMENT
According to IMF report (2015) a typical developing economy collects about 15 percent of GDP in taxes, compared with the 40 percent collected by a typical advanced economy
In a ministerial statement issued on 15th May, 2018 in Addis Ababa, African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic development agreed to boost tax-to-GDP ratio to a minimum threshold of 20 percent of their economies, as part of an effort to realize the Continental Free Trade Area agreement (APA, 2018)
A question is how will countries achieve this 20% threshold?
This paper therefore intends to provide some of the ways that a country can achieve tax growth through reforms by using Malawi as a case study.

5. The specific objectives are
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is to assess the impact of tax reforms on tax collection in Malawi.
The specific objectives are
1.To investigate the types of tax reforms in customs division and the impact they have had on trade taxes in Malawi
2 .To investigate the types of tax reforms in domestic tax division and the impact they have had on domestic VAT in Malawi

6. LITERATURE REVIEW
A look at successful reforms between 2004 and 2015 in five low-income and emerging market economies which achieved some of the largest revenue gains showed that tax reforms are critical in increasing tax revenues.
The experiences of this diverse set of countries namely Cambodia, Georgia, Guyana, Liberia, and Ukraine show that, regardless of the constraints they face, countries can strengthen their capacity to collect tax revenue by pursuing reform strategies
Cambodia for example established a large taxpayer office which allows a country to focus tax compliance efforts on the biggest taxpayers.
The countries embarked on Enhanced audit and verification program which is risk based audit that links the likelihood and nature of an audit to the taxpayer’s inherent risks
Most of these five countries took advantage of IT systems to leapfrog their revenue mobilization reforms. Georgia successfully used smart information management systems for revenue mobilization on managing information and leveraging the power of big data to improve compliance and fight corruption. It automated most processes including e-filing and instituted a system for information sharing among tax authorities, taxpayers, and banks, as well as a one-stop Internet portal.
All the five countries established and modernized basic rules and processes for compliance. For instance, Guyana implemented a unique system of taxpayer identification numbers and streamlined its process and also introduced income tax withholding, a measure critical to fostering compliance.
In its regional economic outlook (2016), IMF indicated that Sub-Saharan African countries could increase tax revenue by an average of 5 percent of gross domestic product, much more than what they receive in international aid if they reform their tax policies.

7. Methodology
The research is quantitative and used secondary data. To measure impact of revenue growth with each reform, a percentile measurement method was implored using Microsoft Excel package.
The research has been prepared following an extensive review of available literature and the greater part of the findings of this research is based on Secondary data analysis.

8. FINDINGS: CUSTOMS REFORMS & IMPACT
FINDINGS: CUSTOMS REFORMS & IMPACT This research undertook a study of all the reforms that Malawi Revenue Authority undertook from the year 2000 when the revenue authority was born. Below is summary of reforms in customs division & impact on revenue collection
FISCAL YEAR
IMPORT_DUTY
(MWK)
Growth rate %
2000/2001
2,384,673,985.00
2001/2002
2,347,847,356.00
(1.54)
2002/2003
3,135,658,421.28
33.55
2003/2004
4,470,646,853.00
42.57
2004/2005
6,230,381,416.00
39.36
2005/2006
7,044,542,351.00
13.07
2006/2007
8,793,604,706.00
24.83
2007/2008
11,543,746,402.00
31.27
2008/2009
13,287,099,186.00
15.10
2009/2010
15,075,412,246.70
13.46
2010/2011
16,137,327,353.36
7.04
2011/2012
18,229,794,484.76
12.97
2012/2013
32,881,765,463.16
80.37
2013/2014
41,087,680,892.90
24.96
2014/2015
46,121,307,593.18
12.25
2015/2016
52,866,724,222.32
14.63
2016/2017
69,772,771,374.71
31.98
MRA born
ASYCUDA 2.7 version
Post Clearance Audit & Risk Management Unit
ASYCUDA ++ version
Introduction of scanners, DPC
ASYCUDA ++ 18e version
ASYCUDA World effect – block agents for unpaid declarations

9. FINDINGS: VAT TAX REFORMS & IMPACT
FISCAL YEAR
Domestic VAT
(MWK)
Growth rate
(%)
2000/2001
2,428,575,485.00
2001/2002
2,781,289,655.00
14.52
2002/2003
4,006,772,350.92
44.06
2003/2004
5,546,345,429.00
38.42
2004/2005
6,879,850,937.00
24.04
2005/2006
9,110,514,767.00
32.42
2006/2007
12,027,370,303.00
32.02
2007/2008
14,481,172,324.00
20.40
2008/2009
18,625,108,491.00
28.62
2009/2010
21,670,131,502.69
16.35
2010/2011
25,751,171,890.85
18.83
2011/2012
31,017,943,211.05
20.45
2012/2013
40,778,570,415.38
31.47
2013/2014
56,448,693,544.29
38.43
2014/2015
67,149,225,979.20
18.96
2015/2016
75,830,428,987.11
12.93
2016/2017
108,063,503,365.54
42.51
Expansion of VAT NET to have wholesalers & retailers
Merging of income tax & VAT office to form domestic tax division
Large tax payer office was established
mandatory usage of electronic fiscal device machine & msonkho online

10. THE END THANK YOU