Texamination of strategies of local revenue collection in local government authorities in Zambia:a case of Gwembe district council
Date
2020
Authors
Kelvin, Mushimbwa
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
For their daily activities, administrative and other costs, Local government authorities in Zambia
rely almost exclusively on funding from Central Government chiefly due to their inability to
mobilize enough revenue from local sources within their jurisdictions. Taking Gwembe District in
Southern Province of Zambia as a case study, this study examined existing strategies used by the
local government authority to increase its local revenue collection for the period 2015 to 2018.
Employing quantitative research method, a population of 46 Employees of Gwembe District
Council were purposively sampled out of total population of 76 employees to gain insights from
key informants involved in designing and executing local revenue collection systems using a selfadministered
semi structured questionnaire. The research results showed that the current strategies
are not yielding the expected results in local revenue collection. The inability to mobilize sufficient
local revenue by local authorities can be seen merely as a symptom of more deep-seated
socioeconomic and institutional constraints. The conceptual lens through which the
socioeconomic, infrastructural and institutional constraints on local revenue collection are
uncovered is the study’s main contribution. While more generally a number of the constraints here
identified have been captured in the broader literature, this has either been coincidental or
piecemeal if fragmented without due regard to the wide-ranging framework and terrain of analysis
through which the problems can be seen. Because the conceptual framework is capable of
identifying the deep-seated constraints and nature of their effect on revenue collection, the study
goes a step beyond just identifying these constraints by erecting series of recommendations which
can prove useful to both revenue mobilization and collection. Based on the findings and
conclusions drawn from this study, the research study recommends the following: setting up a
cross-cutting task force within the council that will look at revenue collection; tax payer
sensitization regarding the need to pay taxes on time and also feedback on overall council
performance; updating tax payer database; reviewing expenditure needs; outsourcing the revenue
collection function in remote areas; and in house training of revenue collectors to keep them
abreast with developments in new legislation, as measures to enhance local revenue collection.
KEY WORDS: Local Revenue Collection, strategies, taxpayer and constraints
Description
Thesis
Keywords
Local Revenue Collection--strategies , Taxpayer and constraints--Local collections