The Zambia council for Social Development (ZCSD) maintains that the 2015 National Budget is a disaster and would like to urge the government to take the budget back to parliament for ratification because of the significant amendments that have occurred both on the revenue and expenditure sides.
We regret that the proposed amendment to the mining taxation will upset the estimated revenue that will in turn affect service delivery especially the uplifting social infrastructure in rural areas meant to curb poverty and inequality.
We expect our government to focus on enhancing local resource mobilisation and ensure that the people of Zambia have maximum returns out of their nature resources which we our government have chosen to auction cheaply in name of retaining investors.
The Honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Alexander Chikwanda must for the first time in history be commended for his earlier direction to ensure Zambians benefit from the mining industry by introduction mining taxation that was based on production which was easy to track and operationalise and enable Zambia Revenue Authority to collect relevant taxes from the mines.
ZCSD is also concerned with the manner the highest office of the land, the Republican President is being engaged by the individual mining companies as the decisions coming from statehouse have the potential to erode the institutional integrity of relevant government agencies.
It is therefore our earnest appeal that the amendments being proposed must also be accompanied by regulations that will enable ZRA to collect mining taxes without complications and that decisions made by our government should NOT be enablers of tax eversion and dodging by the mining companies.
We also call upon the mining companies to be transparent in their dealings and should NOT take advantage of government good will in this matter.
Finally, ZCSD wishes to remind and advise the Patriotic Front that the people of Zambia elected and maintained the president from the ruling party (PF) during the 20th January presidential by-elections to avoid abrupt fiscal and economic policy change and possibility of overburdening the already approved 2015 Budget. We hope that “Continuity without Change” campaign message by the PF must be kept as a demonstration of trustworthiness, truthfulness and integrity by the elected leader, H.E Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu.
Issued by: Lewis Mwape
Executive Director ZCSD
‘We cannot continue to export cheap raw materials.Many are fearful that such bold action will scare away investors. If it does scare them away then that is preferable, we would rather those minerals remain in the ground to benefit our children who will have extraction capacity than to be dug up and exhausted without benefitting our people. Our policies must never be guided by fear of retribution, only by what is right and proper.’ -Robert Mugabe
So, in summary the Zambian government under PF and Edgar Lungu is a disaster! What do you expect from ancient ministers like Alexander Chikwanda? He still practices politics of the 60’s, Kenneth Kaunda style. He was his Minister of Finance, by the way. Who would keep such rags in their cabinet?
Ex-moma
As much as Robert Mugabe has been vilified at international level, I have to say that with my experiences of the so called “foreign investors”, and the reality that the first priority of the same investors is to make alot of money, I have to agree with Mugabe’s position in defending and maintaining the interests of the local people who have no capacity benefit in any opportunities that may arise.
I also have to say that the revision of the mining Tax is the first major mistake that President Lungu has sanctioned. I will count this as the 2nd mistake after putting Kambwili as information minister.
LOL …EL ati seleni tubombeko, more like seleni tolombeko i’mpiya.
LOL …EL ati seleni tubombeko, more like seleni tulombeko i’mpiya.
seleni tutombeko ….te? mwalipena zoona!
@ Cecil Rhodes,….LOL, uli shilu
Umusungu is smart. The KK Airport cabinet ministers go with their ties and they are in casual and in control. Soon, the price of Copper will go out and Zed will be on the lose even more. what a butch of leaders with no vision. what can’t we learn from Botswana’s whom we had taught? this is what happens when a country has failed leadership.
Actually Minister Chikwanda has done well he did the right thing. So I don’t know what hater Lord fimofimo is talking about
Let us not just criticize in order to look economically literate when we are the opposite. Look, Alexander Chikwanda’s tax was not practical because it did not foresee the fall in copper prices. The problem is the arrogance with which he took to the matter. Look, Lungu basically used someone more qualified than Chikwanda (Mvunga- Deputy Finance Minister) to make changes. The country has got to move forward and that is what happened. How is that destructive?
@ LORD VOLDEMORT (THE DARK LORD)
Only blind or extremely incompetent failed to see the trend of copper futures:
Month Price Change
Sep 2014 6,872.22 –
Oct 2014 6,737.48 -1.96 %
Nov 2014 6,712.85 -0.37 %
Dec 2014 6,446.45 -3.97 %
Jan 2015 5,830.54 -9.55 %
Feb 2015 5,729.28 -1.74 %
@Aleshaday…. Had i known, i would have made a killing (Usd/Zmk). I will watch the trend from now on.
@Aleshaday- Exactly, Chikwanda is a cancer to the finance ministry, if someone more conservative were there, Zambia’s economy would be in a better shape. The massive infrastructure that the PF has encumbered is not very well thought because it is not as effective. These projects need to be made strategically in areas such that revenues flow to the government, not just anywhere.
You can talk because you were not going to be affected. 4,000 of us were going to lose jobs, were you going to feed us? EL was not in charge when the budget was made. The mistake was made 22 years ago when you gave the mine back to foreigners. Don’t blame PF. Mugabe may say that rubbish because he is not a normal person.
Economics mathematics solutions does not make sense most of the time hence we need economics of political solutions. Politicians world over hear from the voters.
@ndaje, ZCCM was finished not by the white but ourselves. Zambians are good for NOTHING! Talking too much but you can’t run anything. If FQM didn’t come, were u going to have kansanshi, lumwana or kalumbila? The white man has done a lot of good for us. I cannot listen to Mugabe. He is just arrogant.
The 2015 Budget should be reworked entirely, not just on the revenue side but also expenditure. The costs of the new Constitution and the necessary referendum should be included. Also costs of the Presidential election. Payment of stalled construction projects? The millions of dollars that Nsanda stole from RSA? The takeover of ZTE $105m debt from the nationalised Zamtel? All these should be budgeted.
Lewis Mwape uli cipuuba elo kabili uli mwana wambwa. You wanted us to suffer for most of the mines would have closed on care and maintenance. Kapoli, makaka!!!
Theories vs. practice….applied economical politcs
Awe ine nmano nayapela,kuti muleikala kwati ninkoko ishabula imitwe?
Ba Director Mwape. Please give us a break and just come in open and declare your side. U5 HH or our president EL.
Mine taxes have become a problem not that they have to but because have become political. Selfish politicians are using it as tool to criticize government. Let us put this matter into context.
1. Under MMD, regime was 6% mineral loyalty and 25% corporate tax. In the last ten years only two firms paid corporate tax but all paid mineral loyalty tax.
2. Under Mwanawasa, windfall tax was introduced with much hype from Magande. Fact. No single mines paid a dime on windfall tax inspite copper prices being the highest in the era. This is what made RB and Musokotwane to come with 6% mineral royalty and 25% corporate tax. As usual the Mwapes and others kept yapping. Continued
Find out why the mines didn’t pay any dime of windfall tax. Maybe it is the fault of your useless ZRA. If a good was poorly implemented, that doesn’t mean the idea is useless.
3. When RB and Musokotwane did away with windfall taxes, it became a political campaign issue and all sorts of manner. RB was accused of corruption to eat gains of windfall behind our backs.
4. Whilst Zambians are embroiled in this unfruitful bickering, mines are digging and making money without paying taxes with mines life span dwindling. This is why Chikwanda abolished corporate tax from where no mines pays this tax and increased mineral loyalty from 6% to 20%. The idea behind this is that because mines keep digging with increase production even when copper prices go down, they have to pay tax based on the value of ore mined. THIS IS THE BEST REGIME EVER BY A MAN (CHIKWANDA) WITH GENUINE CONCERN AND LOVE FOR HIS COUNTRY. But he is demonized and asked to resign. What for? So that…
CONTD
those with selfish political ambitions can have fortunes raised.
This is what is dividing Zambians and mine owners have taken note of this weakness or dividing axis. Now the opposition are much worried about loss of jobs not what is being lost in terms of revenue to the country.
So Ba Mwape provide a solution not blame government with basics. Yes revision of regime has affected budget. Yes revenue has been lost. So what now? to continue with a regime where no taxes will be paid. WHAT DO YOU WANT US TO HEAR IMWE BAFIKALA. MASO YENU
I want to start a NEW COPPER MINE!
Zambia or DRC?
OK, forget those stup!d Zambians they don’t know what they are doing. Every day they change their minds.
I want a stable business environment befor I put one cent into a business.
Go for DRC!
DRC is stable because mines do not pay taxes. Only Katumbi and Kabila are beneficiaries
PF cubinnet is a banch of criminal elements who are just there to feed themsells on peoples head! Chikwanda is just a failed Minister why not Chagwa Agwa appoint a new fresh Economist who knows how to run economical matters for this country.
Do not blame PF or neither MMD over the mining issues this all began with UNIP and Kaunda who never heed Kapwepwe`s advise to say let the bazungu ran the economy while we ran the government, and he went on to say we will slowly enter into the economic system gradually and gave a proverb in Bemba ( Tukalaingilamo panono panono ngobukala bwambwa mpaka tukabe 50% each) Kaunda never saw logic in it and he went on to grab the Mines. Efyo baile bazungu and went on to form the London Metal exchange where Zambian copper was levelled to be of low quality than that from Congo a foot step away. so from there the production cost of copper was so high as to what London Metal exchange was offering, hence our Mines collapsed.