An assessment of ZIMRA anti-smuggling initiative on tax revenue: A case of Zimbabwe

The main objective of this study was to assess the effect of anti-smuggling initiative by ZIMRAon tax revenue of Zimbabwean government. The study was descriptive used only primary data from revenue authority revenue performance quarterly reports of 2019 and 2020. From the reports, the researcher took out data on VAT on imports and customs duty for the 1^st half of 2019, 3rd and 4th quarters of 2019. For the year 2020, the researcher made use of data for the 1^st half and the 3^rd quarter. Results showed that there has been an increase in the revenue collected through custom duty in 2019 up to 5.3 trillion in the 3 quarter of 2020 from 1trillion in the 4th quarter of 2019. Thus there has been about a 4th trillion increase in the customs duty. It can be concluded that the increase in customs duty can be attributed to the anti-smuggling efforts instituted by ZIMRA. Findings also showed that there has been an increase in the amounts of revenue collected through VAT on imports for the period 2019 to 20120 due to measures on leakages put in place by ZIMRA. It can be recommended that there should be adherence to more compliance to the measures by ZIMRA such that there is increase on the revenue from VAT on imports and customs duty.