Domestic Revenue Mobilisation in Zambia: A Case Study of Tax Administration and Fiscal Governance

This paper examines domestic revenue mobilisation in Zambia through a qualitative case-study design supplemented by descriptive fiscal data for 2020–2024 and historical policy evidence on mining taxation, VAT administration and revenue governance. This study asks how tax-administration capability, fiscal-governance arrangements and expenditure credibility condition recent revenue performance in a resource-dependent economy. The analysis shows that Zambia’s tax-to-GDP ratio rose from 15.4 percent in 2020 to 18.8 percent in 2024 while the fiscal deficit narrowed, but these gains cannot be attributed automatically to improved administrative efficiency. They must be interpreted alongside macroeconomic recovery, inflation, policy changes, mining-sector dynamics, VAT refund pressures, tax expenditures and continued debt-service constraints. This paper contributes by distinguishing recent fiscal trends from deeper institutional explanations and by showing how Zambia’s experience complements, rather than replicates, the 2024 Zambia Public Finance Review: whereas that review assesses broad public finance and investment governance, this article focuses specifically on the administrative and fiscal-governance conditions under which domestic revenue mobilisation becomes credible development finance. The findings support cautious policy recommendations centred on predictable tax rules, stronger taxpayer-registration and compliance systems, better VAT refund governance, transparent tax-expenditure reporting and expenditure institutions capable of converting revenue gains into visible public value.