Maravi

Magande terms PS's mining tax remark speculative

Magande terms PS's mining tax remark speculative
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Tuesday May 27, 2008 [04:00]

FINANCE minister Ng’andu Magande has described as speculative his permanent secretary Emmanuel Ngulube’s statement that the government may not collect the US $415 million in mineral taxes due to power outages. Recently, Ngulube submitted to the parliamentary committee on estimates, that it was highly unlikely that Zambia would rake in the projected US $415 million from mining windfall taxes due to load shedding which he said was negatively affecting production at the mining companies.

However, Zesco Limited managing director Rhodnie Sisala dismissed the statement by Ngulube saying the investments in the mining sector were not affected by the current load shedding.

When reached for a comment, Magande last Saturday said he could not say whether Ngulube’s statement was correct or not as it was made out of speculation.

He said the fact that Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) recently announced that it is likely to collect the targeted US $415 million additional revenue from the mines and that major mining companies had paid a mineral royalty tax for the month of April 2008 totaling K29.7 billion at the three per cent rate was an indicator that the government was going to meet its tax target for the mining sector.

“My only comment is that we will not scale down on our target to collect the tax we set for ourselves,” said Magande.

“I can’t say the statement by the PS was correct or wrong but it was based on speculation…what he (Ngulube) was saying was because of the challenges we are facing with electricity, we may achieve our targets or not. So really, I can’t stay that the statement was wrong or correct.”

When reminded that the mining companies where reliably supplied with power by Copperbelt Energy Corporation under the bulk supply agreements and that they were not affected by the load shedding, Magande sad:

“What we are saying is that we will not scale down on our target. Just the other day, ZRA announced that they have actually started collecting the new mining taxes is an indicator that we are on course to collect the tax and meet our target.”

Labels: MAGANDE, WINDFALL TAX, ZESCO

posted by MrK @ 10:21 PM