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Nawakwi accuses Magande playing games on tax

Nawakwi accuses Magande playing games on tax
By Royd Mwenya, Sangster Kapulisa and Mwila Chansa
Sunday November 25, 2007 [03:00]

Finance minister Ng’andu Magande is playing games with the people of Zambia on tax, FDD president Edith Nawakwi has said. And Nawakwi has said men have failed to develop Zambia despite ruling the country for the last 43 years. Addressing trainee journalists at The Post newspapers on Friday, Nawakwi said it was not necessary for the government to renegotiate for the increase of mining royalties because unlike some years back, the cash flows of mining companies were bursting.

“The issue here is that Magande does not need to negotiate. He is pretending that he has to negotiate, he should invite me to help him, what are they negotiating?” Nawakwi asked. “Taxation is not a prerogative of donors or every Jim and Jack, especially on this issue. This is time for Zambia to collect the money. If I were Minister of Finance, I would go to the Copperbelt and tax and not beg. But the truth is Magande has been playing games with us. He is saying that he requires the IMF and the World Bank to assist him regulate the taxation of the mining sector; they have no business in the taxation of our Republic because taxation is regulated by our laws.”

Nawakwi wondered why the government has engaged experts in renegotiating the mining agreements when they did not do the same when they went to Parliament last year to ask for uniform taxation of all mining companies. She said that initially, some mining companies had a taxation rate of 0.3 percent while others had 0.6 percent. She said Magande had to go to Parliament to ask the House to level the playing field by making 0.6 percent as the standard for all mining companies.

“Last year before June when we were discussing the budget for 2006, Magande came to Parliament to ask us to extend the overgenerous tax benefits to all mining companies. The question is why?” Nawakwi asked. “Why does he want experts today to assist him reverse this? We do not need the IMF and the World Bank; all we need to change the law are members of parliament and a finance minister who is interested in having more revenue from these mining companies.”

Nawakwi challenged the government to make appropriate amendments to what she termed “useless mining Acts”. She said she was party to those useless mining Acts but there was nothing they could do about it since the donors decided to take advantage of Zambia’s weak position at that time. Nawakwi said donors forced Zambia to privatize the mines since the government, through ZCCM, was losing about US $1 million per day and there were no signs that the situation would improve. She said this situation justified the government’s decision to privatize the mines at a give away price.

Nawakwi said at the time of privatization, it was justifiable to give the mining companies low taxes because copper prices were as low as US $900 per tonne. She said the situation was no longer justifiable because the price of copper has risen to as high as US $10,000 per tonne.

“Yes I was party of those leaders who signed for the low taxes to the new mining companies,” Nawakwi said. “And if you ask me, I can tell you that 0.6 percent we gave them was utter rubbish but there was nothing we could do about it. We had wanted a higher figure but because of the situation then, the copper prices were very low, it was not technically and financially feasible. The mining companies could not have raised any monies anywhere. They argued that high taxation would make their cash flows negative.”

Nawakwi, a former finance minister, said the situation has since improved a lot for Zambia that it can now call the shots.

“For once we have a country where we can put any fee on our copper and it will be bought and we can put any tax and no one will pack their bags because there are no new concessions anywhere except in a few places like Zambia where you are even opening up new mines,” Nawakwi said.

She said there was no criminal offence to the investors in increasing the level of mining taxes in the country provided it was done through Parliament.

And Nawakwi said men had failed to develop Zambia despite leading the country for the last 43 years. She said in terms of managing the economy, if women were given an opportunity to be at the top, they would do better than men.

She was answering a question on whether or not she felt that she had what it takes to run the country considering that she is a woman.

“The thing is that you men play the cards to continue being in power because you know that the moment you will give women a chance to rule, the voters will never look back to select one of your kind,” Nawakwi said. “You men have been in power for 43 years and where are we? You gave us a debt overhang of US $ 7billion, you have taken us through the woods…coupons, and we are now waking up at 04:00 hours looking for water, what have you done?”

Nawakwi said under the leadership of men, there were serious staff shortages in hospitals where one nurse looked after 45 to 50 patients. She complained that it was the same men who even had the audacity to beat up the nurses who were working under difficult conditions.

Nawakwi said the African continent had problems of war and fighting and men were the ones at the helm of leadership in most of the countries.

“Look at all these conflicts around us on the continent, who has caused them?” she asked. “Some people say even women have declared war but only when men become difficult.”

Nawakwi said if voters were given the freedom to choose without being corrupted in any way, they would definitely choose a woman as their leader. Nawakwi said that if voters gave her an opportunity to rule the country even for five years, there would be visible change.

“Whereas when you (men) go to a donor meeting and they ask you what you want and you say ‘ we want money to do this and that’, I go there and tell the OPEC meeting that ‘in Zambia, my fellow women and I have never had a cancer test, can you as a matter of urgency give us a cancer facility at UTH? And that is what you can do as a woman, you can plan for the benefit of others. Today we have a cancer centre at UTH,” said Nawakwi.

Labels: DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS, EDITH NAWAKWI, MAGANDE, MINING CONTRACTS

posted by MrK @ 7:52 AM