Opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) President Hakainde Hichilema says the failure by the PF Government to introduce windfall tax even in the wake of revelations by Vedanta resources Chairman Anil Argawal that Konkola Copper Mines makes over $500 million profit per year will result in continued suffering for Zambians.
Mr. Hichilema says it was expected that government would reconsider its position on windfall tax in view of revelations by the Vedanta Chairman.
Mr. Hichilema says the PF has proved that it is not fairly representing the people of Zambia over the KCM issue.
He says it is a known fact that the Zambian people are not benefiting from the country%u2019s mineral wealth.
And MMD President Dr. Nevers Mumba says the PF government’s lack of capacity to collect appropriate taxes is a scandal.
He says the MMD strongly condemns the mocking comments made by Vedanta Chairman Anil Argawal on how he bought KCM for $25 million.
And Former Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande says people could not be wrong if they said Mines Minister Christopher Yaluma is defending Mr. Argawal from the way he is handling the whole issue.
I hate Lozi women.
@Lungu Joshua , you an ***** , you are evil and worse than Osama Bin Laden. God will punish for the hatred you have for Lozi women. God to hell.
I don’t blame you. Considering your Dad run off with one abandoning your mummy and you.
Bemba and happily married to a Lozi. Ubwafya bwishiba umwine iyo ninkondo yobe if you hate after all you are nothing but a coward fool.
This Joshua Lungu’s social media profile claims that he is a newscaster at Radio Phoenix. Looking at his photos, he seems to be involved in some kind of projection. He is very dark ( not that there’s anything with it) but he only sees it in other people . His own photos unfortunately betray him. Joshua please grow up! Just find another girl and move on. Lozis are not a carbon copy of each other . They come in different shapes, sizes , shades of black and different manners. Dating one or seeing one does not mean that you know them all.
Kikikikiki This is how Mushota made her name, good or bad.
May be HH you are right. With KCM saga, we need to be more assertive.
Horrible Hater is just trying to confuse people and create anarchy, the government have done their homework. The introduction of Windfall Tax must be wieghed against employment creation you either have less jobs or increase revenue earned from Direct taxes on the mines, as is the case by having more in employement the state is earning Indirect taxes from Pay As You Earn as well as the trickle down effect of having more people spending boosting the economy through more indrect taxes such as VAT. Now please for all you negative people who will want to hurl insults at me, please stick to facts and not unsubstantiated theories.
Spot on ! I`m just afraid these UPND cadres won`t see sense in your post because they always think in party lines and not using their personal judgement.
Hey 2020Vision, get your facts right, talking of Job creation, honestly how many people have been employed by KCM ever since RB dropped the windfall Tax? Do you Know that KCM is still running a voluntary separation system where employees are encouraged to quit and walk away with some small cash so as to reduce on manpower? On top of this there is employment freeze.Please lets get what these pipo have stolen from us and then chase them crazy out of Zambia.
Educated but intellectually challenged people like mature are what have made Zambia a poor country.KCM can manage to release more than half of its labour force resulting into them making a lot of profits to meet the windfall tax obligation.Here my dull friend is a puzzle because the money gained from windfall tax can`t be as good as when all those employees are cast in the streets.Ubukopo muleke.Again i forgive you because i doubt if you have any idea how macroeconomics works.
hahahahahah! some people claiming to be studying virus to now macroeconomics,, they are doing/studying masters in everything as long as its in defence of Sata , parrots will always parrot for carrots! good lucky parrot!
@2020vision
I can not see any “facts” in your post but only the most basic of warped theories! Pot calling kettle black… or maybe plain tunnel vision Mr. 2020vision sir?!!!
@Mature and Ndobo, I think both of you come from the same tree. You are biased in your thinking, unobjective and as for Ndobo unable to articulate without resorting to insults. I’m sure the government is still assessing the pros and cons of whether to go ahead with WFT but as I mentioned our economy needs more jobs, and who is taliking about KCM here there are other big mines such as FQM, Barrick and Mopani. Jobs are key to growing an economy, what you Ba mature want is we increase taxing the mines and force them to lay off miners, are you Mature and Ndobo going to employ the retrenched miners then?? Since you have all the answers. Nothing but nonsense from the two of you!!
@vizungu please boss maybe with your unparralled wisdom can you give me one example of the facts I’ve mentioned on taxes above that are indeed not facts..your silence or failure to do that as oppossed to blindly criticising constructive debate speaks loudly not only of your ignorance but also your biasness..sir.
HH – if you did not preside on Privatisation of Major Zambian companies and pocketed millions yourself, then you may have a right to talk about windfall tax. You all wrongly advised the govt to fraudulently sell major companies for a song. If only we kept major shares in companies this windfall tax shouldn’t be an issue. The fact is we got more out of ZCCM then that we do now collectively.
Please learn and understand who a liquidator of a company is before talking about the millions HH pocketed. Stop following whatever Micheal Sata says about HH. Hakainde has all his books ready for inspection by anyone who thinks HH’s wealth was ill-gotten. He’s got brains and invested heavily!
@ Malume, exposing one’s ignorance on the internet like you just did should be criminalized!
” HH – if you did not preside on Privatisation of Major Zambian companies and pocketed millions yourself, then you may have a right to talk about windfall tax. ”
Exactly. Anyone who participated in the privatisation process has not shown that they have an objection to it while in government.
We have seen enough liars enter government. The MMD presided over it, the PF lied about it, and the UPND used to be led by “Anglo” Anderson Mazoka, and is now led by a millionaire who has never spoken out against privatisation.
They will all say anything to get into office – so let’s see what they did when they had their opportunity.
MrK, Sata, and Chikwanda never spoke against privatization. They were in the forefront advocating for it. Sata was Chiluba’s right hand man and MMD SG from 1991 to 2001. Chikwanda was Chief of Staff in Chiluba’s State House. These are the same people who constituted a special team to privatize ZCCM. They appointed Northerners to lead the Special Privatization team of ZCCM. Francis Kaunda was appointed Chairman and deputised by Luke Mwananshiku. At Zambia Privatization Agency there was another Northerner Valentine Chitalu. Mazoka retired from Anglo in 1998. Chiluba sold KCM to Anglo two years after Mazoka left the company. HH had nothing to do with privatization…….it is a figment of your imagination.
Ifyabupuba,we are suffering because of these confused ideas.
It is amazing how Zambians who claim to be educated handed over our comparative advantage (copper) to foreigners and started singing the song of tourism, to compete with every other country! Only a few countries in the whole right world have copper and these include Congo and Chile. We have a bunch of other minerals too. We should have held on to mining. ( My people perish for the lack of knowledge – Hosea 4:6)
This makes a lot of sense, It breaks my heart to see the number of huge pits which will remain on our land when all the copper wealth has been siphoned out of mother Zambia.Politicians are a bunch of Hypocrites.
In short he is saying Nationalise the mines. Mining is like any other business and shareholders need returns from their investments. If a government starts getting more than 50% in form of taxes, it is better they start running it themselves. Investors have options with what to do with their money. Windfall tax will increase taxes and discourage investors. After all it is their mney they invest. Why not talk of increasing tax in the Agricultural sector which is at 15%, is it because HH is in farming. Mining is business like any other business.
Njalimmba stop politicising important issues .All we are saying is lets get a full share of our resources that God gave Zambians.If that is a sin then god forbid.This money when played in Zambia government coffers it will improve health delivery,good road infrastracture and better schools.Instead of this money to deposited in foreign accounts lets have to help improve our lives as Zambians.Investers can not run away leaving pleanty of Copper in the Ground because of wind fall tax its a lie.Lets learn to bagain inteligently.
chimbwi ni chimbwi, you cannot take a cobra from amazon to kafue national park and expect it to turn into an impala. these 1diots were singing ‘windfall tax’ before elections and after winning the tune ceased, is it that their pockets got lined up or what? and they dont come to explain to us the electorates, they are too proud of themselves
Yali donchi ukubeba during the election campaign and it’s “donchi ukubeba now that tulelyamo”.
I knew that this loser will say something in this line.Come on be serious Hikainde thats not how government works.They(government) cant just wake up after watching that video and introduce windfall tax.It is not as simple as that.I find your point shallow if not pathetic.The government must study the situation and then only introduce windfall tax after putting all the factors into consideration.One can`t run government on whims.
this id.iot even malawians have brains than you. how on earth can you think like that? are you going to run the country on hear say idi.ot? nowander your members on facebook are nothing but mabisi id.iots.
HE no diiferent from the indians , he looted the privatisation money, pensioners money was channeled to his accounts .most of them died of hunger.Hungry ugly Hyena.
Good observation from an economist and a prosperous businessman. The hitch comes from the Chimbwi No Plan camp. These guys wouldn’t take any logical advice. Shame.
There is a serious leadership vacuum in Zambia. HH fails to rise to the occasion even when opportunity is right in his face. Now his MPs are lining up for (I can’t even call it “their”) mid-term gratuity, which they don’t deserve. While, people who have worked for over 30 years are still struggling to get their money!
How petty some Zambian display intellectual malaise over national issues.
HH was not in government during the sale of KCM which began when Mr Sata was chola boy of late president Chiluba. Guy Scott was already engulfed in ‘swine gate’ scandal instead of assisting how Zambia can benefit from the mines privatization.
HH was approached by MMD and Sata was minister without portfolio then, to privatize mines with terms of reference given by Zambian government. HH as a competent technocrat proceeded and advised government accordingly. At the end of the day it was a political decision that hurt Anglo American holding company that pulled the plug and not HH. If Sata and Chiluba never went to school to understand consequences of their decision can not be blamed on HH. Let us give HH chance,…
Aquilla, give HH a chance own your own. Some of us will simply not take a chance with such a greed man who saw opportunity to enrich himself instead of coming up with the best bargains for the nation. Being a private citizen doesn’t absorb one of their responsibility as a citizen of that nation. I will never trust HH, it will take a miracle!
Magande’s observation is as good as mine. I have been wondering and trying to understand what the Mines Minister was saying, and my conclusion was that he was actually in support of Agarwal! In that regard, we should not expect anything tangible and positive from the so called ZRA investigation. These guys I strongly suspect collect brown envelopes from mine investors.
Ba hakainde,you were in the forefront privitising the mines.infact you made money from the same hardcore pretender,I just can’t trust.
FOR AS LONG AS HH FAILS TO CLEARLY EXPLAIN WHERE HE GOT HIS BILLIONS WHICH ALLOWS HIM TO OWN UPND AS A PERSONAL PROPERTY, HE HAS NO RIGHT TO EVEN OPEN HIS MOUTH ABOUT KCM.
LET OTHER CLEAN HANDS LIKE NEVERS COMMENT ABOUT KCM.
MAGANDE KNOWS A LOT. LET HIM SPILL MORE BEANS,. AS FOR YALUMA, YOU CAN TELL BY HIS LUKEWARM RESPONSE THAT SOMETHING MAY HAVE ALREADY EXCHANGED HANDS TO HIS BENEFIT.
This is a disgrace.
Ethiopia was like this before their revolution. Even the name: “Ethiopia” became synonymous with hunger. Today, and for the last ten years, Ethiopia has been and continues to be one of the bet performing economies in Africa. Zambia seriously needs a revolution.
There is too much rotten thinking out there. Our leaders are like ostriches, walking tall with too much clout accompanied by tiny brains. What an embarrassment it was to read about the so called “head of state” in court as a witness in a defamation case!
Mwanawasa was a wheeler dealer. So was Chiluba, so is Sata and same will be HH and Nevers. All slaves from Africa were sold by African Chiefs and so are chiefs and Presidents are selling resources, humans and animals alike. It is about lining one’s pockets. Show me an exception in Zambia and I will vote for him.
@Njalamimba Musonda. Its characters like you that will not take Zambia anywhere. Zimbabwe have 51% in all the mines. Have infesters as I want to call them run away? They will only run away after finishing our resources. Wake up charcoal burner.
UPND and Mwanawasa special assistant Jack Kalala have no reason to fool Zambians that US$ 25 million was the best price that Zambia could get from KCM at the time of sale. The little information we know does not support this.
Mr.Sardanis revealed that carry forward tax losses of US$ 2,543,588,000 were given to Agarwal. These carry forward tax losses were KCM assets, to which if you add US$ 400,000,000 asking price (assuming this was the correct valuation of the mine) as stated by Agarwal in the video, brings the total assets of KCM to US$2,943,588,000. That is US$ 2.944 billion worth of KCM assets, against which Agarwal was only asked to pay US$ 25,000,000 (25 million),Therefore from day one of this fraudulent the deal, Zambia was short charged US$ 2,918,588,000.(US$2.918 billion)
Further according to Mr. Sardanis, Agarwal was only required to pay the US$ 25 million in installments over a period 4 years and Mr. Sardanis says there is no evidence of payment, because some credit note were issued in government to write off this debt. Mr. Sardanis is supported on this statement by Minister Yaluma when has stated and I quote” KCM did not bring in any fresh investment as promised, they just started reinvesting the same funds generated from sales proceeds against the original agreement,” Jack Kalala, where was Mwanawasa when this chap failed to pay the US$ 25 million and could not bring in fresh investment? What were the provisions on the contract to address such lack of performance on the part of your so called investor? Where is your Donche Kubeba strategy here?
Agarwal, himself in the video states that he did not even have US$ 4million in this pocket and presumably he was such a poor man who could not even afford to buy more than two air tickets for his team to come to Zambia to sign this fraudulent transaction with Mwanawasa. How then was such an asset like KCM given to such a poor man.
I would like UPND and Mr. Jack Kalala, Mwanawasa’s former special assistant to point out to Zambians here, what the benefits to Zambians where on the date of sale here.
As for PF government I would like to know why they are failing to take back KCM from this Mwanawasa criminal Agarwal. This chap Agarwal is not an investor as we have clearly been told by Yaluma, Agarwal did not bring in any fresh investment as promised, they just started reinvesting the same funds generated. In this entire fraudulent transaction Mwanawasa just removed Zambians from running KCM and transferred all the assets and profits to his foreigner friend Agarwal. This is the treacherous act against Zambia as a State we are taking about. We are interested to know the role Stanchart UK and the British government in this treacherous transaction against Zambian state, Stanchart UK as advisors to Mwanawasa, knew that KCM was not a personal asset of Mwanawasa,
it belonged to Zambians and therefore had a responsibility to ensure that the transaction was concluded in the interests of the ultimate beneficiaries, the people of Zambia. Is there an agreement with the IMF and The World Bank that Zambia as a state cannot own companies and later on those companies cannot be run by Zambians? Was this the condition of the HIPC debt cancellation?
PF, your failure to take back KCM in the face of all the evidence that is there, showing that this was not a sale, but a pure con, by Mwanawasa and Agarwal will be held against you for being a party to this treacherous crime against the Zambian State and you will be held responsible for all the losses that Zambia will continue to loss in this scam from now onwards.
As for taxes, Jack Kalala and UPND should explain why income tax was set at 25% unchangeable over for 20 years in the secretive useless fraudulent agreement Mwanawasa had with Agarwal. Where is your so called Donche Kubeba? For a start there is no such terminology in the world of finance and investment, therefore Jack Kalala do not show you ignorance here and please be reminded that you are a suspect in this treacherous crime against the state of Zambia and all what you say will be held against you in the trials to come in future.
Countrymen there are massive losses to the country here, to the US$2.9 billion loss to Zambia on day one of Mwanawasa signing the deal, you add on the US$ 13.5 billion untaxed illegal revenues that Agarwal admitted in the video to have taken from Zambia
untaxed illegal revenues that Agarwal admitted in the video to have taken from Zambia our losses so far stand at US$16.4 billion and we are still counting losses.
Given the magnitude of the problem, I agree with Action Aid call to close this KCM mine. There is nothing in it for Zambians. In countries like America, there is no way you can run a business and claim loss for three years, the tax authorities will close your company, because they will say it is not a business but a hobby. Therefore this Agarwal should close his Vadanta and go and play hobbies in copper mining from where he comes from, certainly not here in Zambia, such hobbies are not welcome, The same goes for others who are not paying taxes.
Agarwal is a genius. It pays to think. Africans by en large consider thinking to be an avoidable evil and a debilitating taxation of the mind. Here, in this KCM deal, this guy Agarwal has outwit us!
Mei Matangu,
You talk like you have Stockholm Syndrome.