The Mozambican state has so far this year collected one billion meticais (15.7 million US dollars at the current exchange rate) in taxes in the Beluluane Industrial Park, on the outskirts of Maputo, according to the Mozambican Tax Authority (AT).
Domingos Muconto, deputy director-general of Taxes, told reporters on Monday during a press conference called to present some of the results of the tax and customs regime for the Special Economic and Industrial Free Zones, that the sums collected show a strong potential for collection in this region, and it is expected that collections will be higher than last year, when 1.4 billion meticais (around 22 million dollars) were collected.
Between 2018 and 2022, 432.5 million meticais (around 7 million dollars) were collected, most of which came from Corporate Income Tax (IRPC), which contributed 349.3 million meticais (around 5.5 million dollars) to the results.
Under the law, operators and companies in Industrial Free Zones benefit, from the date the respective certificate is issued, from exemption from IRPC for the first five years, a 50 per cent reduction from the sixth to the tenth fiscal year and a 25 per cent reduction in the tax for the life of the project.
“These indicators show that the state is not losing out by granting tax exemptions to companies operating in Special Industrial and Economic Free Zones. The state often resorts to exemptions in order to attract investment and ensure the competitiveness of the economy in the face of the external scenario”, Muconto said.
“You have to give up some taxes in order to have greater gains in other macroeconomic variables. Companies are exempted in order to unburden themselves of the goods that will be produced in these zones, which are mostly for export,” he added.
Muconto also assured that the aluminum smelting company mozal pays taxes following a report in one of the Maputo saying that “in 2022, Mozal invoiced 3.3 billion dollars and made a profit of 924 million USD on which it paid zero IRPC.
Source; Clubofmozambique.com