By CLAVER MUTINTA
MINING companies must operate within Zambian laws and pay their taxes on time given the conducive environment the government has created for them to operate under, deputy Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Miles Sampa has said.
Mr Sampa said in an interview in Lusaka on Thursday that Government needs money to develop the country and improve living standards, especially in rural areas, where poverty levels remain high.
“It is important that they [mines] pay taxes. Government needs money to create employment…the mines must give Caesar what belongs to Caesar,” he said.
Mr Sampa was commenting on revelations that some mining firms have continued to either delay payment of money due to Zambia or plainly avoid taxes and sometimes transfer profits and tax to haven countries such as Switzerland.
He said Government halted plans to re-introduce windfall taxes so that the mines were not choked by charges on profits, which could vary with costs of production and prices of copper in London at different given times.
“Government gave mines enough room to manoeuvre,” Mr Sampa said, wondering why any mine would either delay or avoid paying taxes given the lee-way the Zambian government has given them.
Studies by anti-tax avoidance groups have stated that Zambia is one of the resource-rich countries in the developing world that are losing billions of dollars annually as a result of multi-national companies’ reluctance to pay what they often pay in their countries of registration.
Mr Sampa said there are various ‘black holes’ in the tax sector, which mines and other multi-nationals have been able to manipulate and avoid paying tax without necessarily breaking the law.
“It is up to us as law-makers and patriotic citizens to seal those loop-holes or else we will be blamed by the future generation for not capturing enough resources to make their lives better than ours,” Mr Sampa said.
He said Government would like to see win-win situations in the manner mines are run in Zambia.
Zambia depends on copper exports for more than 80 percent of its foreign currency receipts and its economy rises and shrinks in tandem with copper prices in London.
Yesterday, the price of copper was over US$7,400 per tonne, way above the five-year forecast average of just above US$7,200 with a promise of rising up to US$8,000 in the near future.
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