Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Monday said it has bagged a three-year contract from Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) for modernisation of its domestic tax system. No financial details were disclosed.

The scope of the project includes providing an integrated tax software application based on TCS’ taxation framework, taxpayer 24/7 portal for e-services delivery, data migration, training, roll-out, warranty and operational support, TCS said in a statement.

This is TCS’ third revenue and tax system automation project in the African region after implementation for Uganda Revenue Authority and ongoing implementation for Kenya Revenue Authority, it added.

TCS has done more than 15 tax framework implementations in India, seven in US and two in Africa.

“The framework will help Zambian government deliver taxation services to its citizens as well as provide an effective monitoring system for its tax officials,” TCS Vice President and Global Head (Government Industry Solutions Unit) Tanmoy Chakrabarty said.

ZRA, as part of its tax reforms and modernisation programme, has engaged TCS to provide an integrated and multi-tax system covering VAT, Income Tax, Pay-As-You—Earn, Presumptive Tax, Turnover Tax, Mineral Royalty Tax, Excise, Property Transfer Tax, Medical Levy and Withholding Tax.

Once operational, the system is expected to transform the service delivery to taxpayers, support the country’s sixth National Development Plan and assist ZRA to better control and monitor operations as well as prevent and detect potential revenue leakages.

“The TaxOnline project has emerged as one of our critical modernisation initiatives aimed at reducing the cost of compliance and increasing processing efficiency. TaxOnline will also enable the authority to detect and deter any tax evasions through the intense cross analysis of the tax information and tax compliance which will eventually improve tax collection,” ZRA Commissioner General Berlin Msiska said.

With this system, taxpayers would experience new e-services and simpler tax processes resulting in improved levels of voluntary compliance, Msiska added.

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