THE Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) says the 2020 revenue performance will relatively decline to the initial projections in view of the anticipated economic slowdown and turbulences in the operating environment exacerbated by the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Indeed, revenue collection has greatly been affected due to the lockdown-related factors that include shutdown of borders, travel restrictions that have disproportionately reduced imports, thereby affecting revenue collection from excise duty and customs duty, reduced receipts from tourism,” Chimanda told NewsDay Business.

Chimanda said a 6,86% below target revenue collection for the month of April 2020 in net terms after adjusting for refunds was recorded.

“In view of the anticipated economic slowdown and turbulences in the operating environment exacerbated by the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 revenue performance will decline relative to the initial projections,” he said.

During the first quarter of 2020, Zimra managed to collect cumulative net revenue of $13,88 billion against a target of $12,57 billion, 10,42% above budget.