Maravi

Kumar says he'll return on Nov 28
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Tue 12 Nov. 2013, 14:00 CAT

KCM chief executive officer Kishor Kumar says he will return to Zambia on November 28. And mines minister Christopher Yaluma has revealed that Konkola Copper Mines has not been fulfilling its tax obligations to the Zambia Revenue Authority.

In an internal memo to workers in the company, Kumar said he had flown to attend to Zinc International business in South Africa and would return at the end of this month.

"During this period, Mr David Kaunda who is vice-president human capital management will act in the position of chief executive officer, and all decisions will be jointly taken with the EXCO members," Kumar stated in the November 8 memo.
"Please accord him all the due cooperation during this period."

Kumar, who is currently chief executive officer for Zinc International, functions as chief executive for Base Metals (Africa), which includes control of KCM operations and copper mines of Tasmania (CMT) in Australia.

Kumar "voluntarily exited" the country last Thursday after the government pursued him over his remarks that President Michael Sata was full of political rhetoric.

This was after President Sata directed that KCM halts the planned retrenchment of over 1,500 workers as the company planned to migrate to mechanization and automation to cut down on labour costs at one of the most labour-intensive mines in the country.

And in a separate interview, Yaluma said the government would constitute a team of experts from ZRA, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Mines to probe KCM which was struggling.

He said KCM was currently failing to meet its production targets as well as tax obligations to ZRA.

"Based on the discussion with KCM and ourselves, this team we will constitute is for specific things we want to find out and also KCM, they want to prove to us something that they have been telling us," said Yaluma.

"It's totally agreed by both parties and that is what we want to dwell on.
They have not been honouring or fulfilling their targets and they lack capacity to pay. They are in arrears with ZRA. They are in operations but they are not performing well."

Labels: CHRISTOPHER YALUMA, DAVID KAUNDA, KCM, KISHOR KUMAR, POLLUTION, TAX EVASION, ZRA

posted by MrK @ 5:35 PM