MOZAMBIQUE- Rosario Fernandes, Chairperson of the Mozambique Tax Authority (AT), has announced earlier in the week that tax collection this year has surpassed the target set by the government.

In the initial budget for 2013 the fiscal revenue target was 113.9 billion meticais (about 3.8 billion US dollars). When the budget was revised in August, the target was increased to 120.4 billion meticais.

Speaking at commemorations of the seventh anniversary of the establishment of the AT, Fernandes said that target has been exceeded. As of 20 December (11 days before the close of the 2013 financial year), total fiscal revenue collected was over 124.41 billion meticais.

Fernandes said this was 26 per cent more that the total collected in taxes and customs duties in 2012, nine per cent more than the target in the original budget for 2013, and 3.7 per cent more than the figure in the amended budget.

The fiscal ratio (revenue collected as a percentage of GDP) is 26.51 per cent, Fernandes added, which is 0.81 more than the target in the amended budget.

He added that the number of registered taxpayers has increased over the year by 562,048 (the number of individuals, companies and other entities who have received a tax identification number - NUIT - during 2013). This was also more than expected - the target for issuing NUITs was surpassed 12.4 per cent.

Fernandes also announced that the American oil and gas company Anadarko is expected to pay capital gains tax by April 2014 on the sale of part of its holding in Area One of the Rovuma Basin, off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, where enormous deposits of natural gas have been discovered.