Maravi

Lusaka economist calls for tax system revision

Lusaka economist calls for tax system revision
By Fridah Zinyama
Friday June 08, 2007 [04:00]

A Lusaka based economist, Lloyd Sichilongo has said the tax system in the country should be revised in order to make it more equitable. During the Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) seminar on ‘How the government budget can be used to improve equity’, Sichilongo said equity was not just a goal but also a means to fostering economic growth.

“Zambia cannot talk of equity when it comes to sharing the national cake,” he said. “Areas that are critical to the nation like education and health have really been sidelined by this government,” Sichilongo said.

He said this could be witnessed by the budgetary allocations that had been set aside for the health and education sectors. Sichilongo added that it was unacceptable for the equity burden of the country to be based on individual taxpayers.

“In this year’s budget, individual tax will account for 26 percent of the total domestic revenue,” Sichilongo said. “This is in contrast to corporate tax which will only account for 11 per cent of the total domestic revenue.”

He said even more shocking was the fact that the mining companies would only pay 1 per cent of the total revenue.

“This situation should not be allowed to continue as the money that most of these mining companies have stashed away in foreign accounts is more than the total revenue of this country,” Sichilongo said.

He said at the moment Zambia was losing out from gaining from the only means of revenue that could help the country develop.

Labels: LLOYD SICHILONGO, TAXATION

posted by MrK @ 5:16 AM