Chamber of Mines speaks out on Tax payment

COMMENT - Outrageous! These people are basically arguing that they don't need to pay income or revenue tax because they are already paying council taxes. The ordinary citizen is taxes far more heavily than the mining corporations are. Imagine a worker turned around and said - I don't need to pay PAYE, I'm already paying council taxes. Which I would support by the way, because unlike the copper mines, workers DO pay income tax. Workers get double taxed, so mines won't have to be.

Chamber of Mines speaks out on Tax payment.
By Kabanda Chulu in Kitwe
Wed 10 Feb. 2010, 11:10 CAT

THE Chamber of Mines, a consortium of mining companies in Zambia has stated that a false impression has been created that the mines do not want to pay taxes.

Commenting on government’s intention to seek high interest loans to finance infrastructure projects like roads damaged by mining activities, highly placed sources that preferred anonymity said all taxpayers including the mines contribute to the central treasury.

The sources said that government was independent enough to supplement taxes through borrowing to finance public projects such as roads and other infrastructure.

The sources advised people to bear in mind that the mines paid taxes that go into the national treasury.

“We are not in a position to know the distribution of resources from the national treasury and government is independent enough to decide on how to supplement taxes through borrowing to finance public projects such as roads and other infrastructure,” said the sources.

“And a false impression has been created that mines don’t pay taxes but money is paid into the national treasury including VAT (Value Added Tax), increased PAYE (Pay As You Earn), import and customs duty and several domestic taxes including council rates.”

Nevertheless, the sources stated that the Chamber of Mines was working with the government on various developmental projects and was looking forward to embrace the public-private-partnership (PPP) framework.

“We are happy to get involved in projects under PPP but this will be decided by individual mining companies depending on their corporate policies and generally it is our desire to work with government on various developmental projects,” said the sources.