ICTAM advocates for a progressive tax regime in the 2023/24 Budget

On January 9, 2023, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs began soliciting views on how the 2023/24 National Budget should be crafted.

The ICT Association of Malawi (ICTAM) emphasized the need for a downward revision or abolishment of certain tax lines in order to propel the ICT sector.

ICTAM President, Clarence Gama, stressed that lenience on some taxation lines linked to the sector would make ICT services affordable to a larger percentage of the population hence growing the economy.

“We have emphasized the need for the government to prioritize procuring ICT services locally because manufacturers of ICT gadgets do not recognize Malawi as a macro buyer,” Gama said.

The following were some of the suggestions the Association made:

  1. Reduction of Non-Resident Tax (NRT) on software licenses from 15 percent to 5 percent.
  2. Exemption of the 10 percent Media Storage Levy on IT infrastructure sold on a Business-to-Business basis, for example, supplying servers to Banks.
  3. Exempt local software developers from the 20 percent Withholding Tax.
  4. Review Excise Tax on telecommunication and bandwidth-related products.
  5. Tax waivers for local ICT companies making investments in ICT infrastructure.
20 February 2023