In the context of declining Government revenues from a peak of around 30 percent of GDP in the late 1970s to just 13 percent of GDP from tax collections in the early 1990s, the Zambian Government launched a tax reform programme in 1992. In addition to various tax policy initiatives, this reform programme included a major overhaul of revenue administration through the establishment the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA), on April 1, 1994, as a semi-autonomous agency under the Zambia Revenue Authority Act, now Chapter 321 of the Laws of Zambia. That culminated in the former Departments of Income Tax and Customs and Excise of the then Ministry of Finance being brought together under the revenue authority.