About $1.8 billion collected in tax last year – FRCS CEO

Fiji Revenue and Customs Service CEO, Mark Dixon says approximately $1.8 billion was collected in tax last year and this was in line with their forecast.

Dixon says they did not collect as much revenue as they anticipated because of COVID-19 but as soon as the economy opened up in January last year, the second half of their financial year was very strong.

The CEO further says they met their overall revenue forecast target for last year.

He adds the target has increased from about $1.8 billion to $2.3 billion this year, so that is quite a big jump.

Dixon adds they had strong revenue collection throughout Christmas to the New Year, while February and March were quiet but they are confident that they will meet their revenue forecast and hit that target by the end of the year.

He also says people are responding well to the digitisation of their tax administration.

Dixon stated this at the launch of their Compliance Improvement Strategy at their Regional Training Centre.

The FRCS CEO also agrees with Fiji Law Society President Wylie Clarke’s comments that Fiji’s taxation system is not fit for purpose.

Dixon says they support it from an FRCS perspective.

The CEO says they agree on streamlining and simplifying the tax administration so that they do not have too many tax types.

“We only have the key tax types that we need which will be V.A.T, Corporate Income tax, Personal Income tax and wherever possible we make sure that we simplify those tax types as much as we can” FRCS CEO Mark Dixon.