Malawi: TNM Mpamba Partners MRA for Electronic Tax Payment

As a way of improving efficiency in tax compliance and collection, TNM Mpamba Limited has partnered with Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) to enable electronic payment of taxes through the Mpamba platform.

The partnership enables Mpamba subscribers who have MRA Payment Registration Numbers (PRN) to pay for their Domestic / Customs & Excise taxes through Mpamba.

Announcing the new measure, TNM Mpamba General Manager Chikhulupiliro Mphatso said the introduction of Mpamba as a platform for tax payment emphasizes the company's commitment to deploy digital technology in providing solutions in the national payments ecosystem and also as a safe payment mode during the covid 19 pandemic and beyond.

"We are aware that in the wake of Covid-19, electronic payments have proven to be more effective to stem the spread of the pandemic and TNM Mpamba will continue to innovate to keep customers safe," said Mphatso.

Making payments using Mpamba will afford taxpayers security, convenience, availability, affordability and cost-effectiveness as customers would save time and money spent on travelling to settle their tax obligations.

"To pay tax, Mpamba customers that already have a PRN number need to dial Dial *444# then Select 4 (Payments), Select 8 (Government payments), Select 1 (MRA Tax), Enter PRN and follow menu prompts," Mphatso said.

MRA e-Payments Project Manager Tiya Somba-Banda said payment of tax through Mpamba would enhance tax compliance, reduce cost of compliance and improve revenue collection, which would ultimately spur socio-economic development.

He said as a tax administrator, MRA has been implementing various modernization projects like e-Payments, ASYCUDA, Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFD) to enhance revenue collection.

"The introduction of Mpamba will complement our efforts to collect more tax revenue for socio-economic development. Research has shown that tax authorities that allow tax payments to be made using mobile money report higher revenue collection." noted Somba Banda.

He said countries like Mauritius and Tanzania reported increases in tax revenues after adopting mobile payment facilities.

"We are optimistic that the introduction of Mpamba as a mobile money platform to collect tax revenue would improve tax compliance and enhance revenue collection," Somba Banda said.