Fiji Revenue and Customs Services. [File Photo]

The Fiji Revenue and Customs Services has been recording strong revenue collection since December, indicating that the economy is heading towards the pre-COVID level, says its Chief Executive, Mark Dixon.

Dixon says they have collected net revenue of $1.7 billion for the 2021–2022 fiscal year, surpassing the forecast by $11.7m.

Consumption taxes such as Domestic VAT, Import VAT, Fiscal Duty, and Domestic Excise have all been contributing to the positive revenue outcome.

He says this is good news for the economy.

“We certainly beat the forecast, which is really, really good news for everybody. We just collected just under $1.7 billion. It is a significant increase on the year before, and I think the message behind that is that when you set forecasts, it is never easy to beat the forecast. There wouldn’t be a lot of point in having one if it was easy to beat.”

Dixon adds that the collection for the 2021–202 fiscal year had actually started relatively slowly.

“The fact that we had a fairly slow start the last financial year, the first six months we were a little bit behind on that forecast. What’s really happened since Christmas is a massive turnaround where we started to collect really strong revenues every month and that’s meant that we have played some catchup and actually met the forecast for the whole year, it’s a very positive sign and I would like to thank everybody involved especially the FRCS team that’s helped collect that revenue .”

The strong revenue collection has been attributed to the recovery of businesses, the rebound of the tourism sector, and increased confidence shown by consumers.