Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation Joseph Mwanamvekha has challenged Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) to sustain revenue performance and strengthen domestic resource mobilisation amid public debt pressures, tax evasion and illicit financial flows.
The minister, speaking in Blantyre yesterday during the launch of MRA’s 2026-31 Corporate Strategic Plan, said stronger domestic revenue mobilisation was critical to reducing reliance on external financing and providing resources for national development.
Mwanamvekha urged the public tax collector to build on its recent gains by strengthening compliance, widening the tax base and improving efficiency of revenue administration, without solely relying on increasing taxes.
He said government will leverage the five-year strategic plan as an institutional cornerstone for boosting domestic taxes and supporting the National Economic Recovery Plan and Malawi 2063, a long-term-plan that seeks to turn Malawi into a lower middle-income economy by 2030 and an upper middle-income economy by 2063.
“Increased domestic revenue means more classrooms, better-equipped hospitals, safer roads and more opportunities for our youth,” said Mwanamvekha.
On her part, United Nations Development Programme resident representative Fenella Frost said the strategic plan has been launched at a pivotal time when tighter global financing conditions and a contracting development assistance landscape are increasing pressure on countries such as Malawi to raise more domestic resources to finance its development needs.
“Strengthening domestic resource mobilisation is not an option, it is a necessity,” she said, emphasising the need to widen the tax base rather than placing heavier burdens on households and businesses already saddled by various taxes.
Frost said raising the tax-to-gross domestic product ratio from about 16.8 percent towards 20 percent was critical to translating Malawi’s development ambitions into actual delivery while supporting fiscal sustainability.
She also called for continued engagement with the private sector and a more efficient, predictable and digital tax system that supports businesses, particularly small businesses and emerging entrepreneurs, to formalise, grow and create jobs.
MRA board chairperson MacFussy Kawawa said the authority has maintained an average revenue performance rate of about 99 percent between 2020 and 2026 strategic cycle, including collecting about K4.4 trillion against a K4.32 trillion target in the final year.
He said the new plan will focus on revenue mobilisation and sustainability, digital transformation, data and analytics, risk-based compliance, an expanded tax base and improved taxpayer services, with its success ultimately depending on disciplined execution.
The minister’s call comes as MRA faces a K6.2 trillion domestic revenue collection target for this fiscal year that end on March 31 2027.
MRA has so far collected K1.39 trillion in the first quarter against a target of K1.37 trillion, representing a K20 billion surplus.
