FRED M’membe and The Post Newspapers have invested more than US$1 million in Agricultural activities while refusing or neglecting to pay tax obligations to the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA).
This is despite the fact that in 2011 ZRA waived K16 million from the Post indebtedness in interest and penalties in the hope that the company would settle the indebtedness but the company failed.
Now ZRA wants the outstanding K22 million paid in one installment and feels the company has the capacity to pay.
The Post had not been remitting company tax for the following charge years 2006/2007, 2008/2009 and 2011/2012 and has an outstanding tax debt due on its undertaking for Time to Pay Arrears of Tax, in the Time to Pay Agreement (TPA).
When ZRA demanded for full payment last year, the Post applied for and obtained judicial review which was also acted as a stay of the demand and any subsequent action.
But now ZRA says the Post does not deserve leniency or judicial review because the institution cannot be treated in an exceptional manner as it has even failed to honour previous settlement agreements.
According to submissions in the matter that came before the Lusaka High Court yesterday, the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) had in 2011 cancelled over K16 million in favour of the Post newspapers in unpaid taxes, but despite the action by ZRA to give the Post and Fred M’membe the waiver, they continued to breach the law by failure to honour the terms of settlement including retaining payments that should have been forwarded to ZRA.
According to the letter written to Fred M’membe on 19th September, 2014, ZRA Commissioner General Berlin Msiska said that the Post Newspaper had neglected to fulfill its obligations by not paying taxes.
“As you are aware in October 2011, we approved your appeal for a waiver of penalties and interest after you successfully paid the principal taxes in installments. Our expectation was that you would be a compliant taxpayer. However, it has come to our attention that you have accumulated another tax liability. You neglected to remain current with your tax obligations and accumulated yet another tax liability,” Mr. Msiska stated in a letter to Mr. M’membe which has also been submitted before High Court Judge Mwiinde Siavwyapa.
Mr. Msiska said that the authority was constrained to accept the proposals made by the Post and Mr. M’membe on the mode of payment of tax because they had continued to breach the law with respect to tax remittance.
“In the premises, we are constrained to accept your proposal to clear your tax liability in installments as there is no compelling reasons for us to once more exercise our discretion and allow you to settle your tax obligations installments. We now demand the immediate payment of the total tax liability of K22, 517, 952, 05 without fail,” said Mr. Msiska.
ZRA stated that it had decided to oppose the proposal to have the Post pay its debt in installments because the Newspaper did not respect agreements.
The institution also stated that in September last year ZRA wrote to the Post Newspapers advising them that they were not remitting or honouring its tax liabilities and that the Post had breached its undertaking to Pay Arrears of Tax, that is the Time to Pay Agreement (TPA) which they had signed.
“The debt arose from the fact that the Post for the period February 2014, to July 2014, was not remitting Value Added Tax (VAT) and Individual Income Tax collected in form of Pay As You Earn (PAYE). We wrote to the Post after a meeting in September that we would not accept the proposal because the Post was not complaint to paying tax.”
Cage this Punk!! Who does he think he is??
This now smells political. You jail the man, deny him bail, it fails. Now remove the roof off his head. Mmembe could outsurvive these leaches
Quote “The Post had not been remitting company tax for the following charge years 2006/2007, 2008/2009 and 2011/2012” End quote: this means 1. ZRA, 2. Mmembe and 3. whoever was president during those periods is corrupt.
Mmembe has been pacified but he’ll rise again. Mutembo has been muzzled. THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN AT THE MOMENT IN ZAMBIA IS EMMANUEL MWAMBA. He knows the weakness of the Executive. He can rock the boat whenever he wants. He’s thenew CARTEL, one man CARTEL. Super Mwamba IS BACK. He rose to prominence as FTJ’s spokesman from who he learnt the skills of dribbling his way to what his heart desires. Watch him. He’s going nowhere because he has his eyes on a bigger prize.
ZRA are jokes and work under heavy of influence of the Government anyway, I am not in any way condoning Mr Meembe though.
Thanks
BB2014
This is what makes the Zambian system totally rotten to the core and stinking. Basically both sides of the equation have crooks and rotten people and these people on both side of the equation are just abusing the system and the losers and mostly affected in this whole rotten battle are us the ordinary Zambians working hard to earn a decent leaving.
Is it right for Membe not to pay Tax? Is it right for Membe to not even honor his commitments? Is it wrong for the judge to send him to court because the whole Zambia will say ECL and RB are persecuting him?
Is under the persecution shadow of RB and ECL a ticket or immunity to break every Zambian Law?
Has Sylvia Masebo now earned the right to break every Zambia law and use persecution card as immunity?
Can you also ask if is right for RB to enjoy proceeds of the corruption?
@ Aleshaday, don’t waste your breath talking about RB who has been cleared by the Courts. Just let your mmembe pay what belongs to Caesar.
What about Daily Mail and Times?
This thief should not be treated with kid gloves. Let ZRA obtain a Fifa and seize his assets including his useless newspaper, and sell them so that the country recovers what he owes. If such crooks who hide behind the free press had been paying taxes there could have been no need for the country to borrow to mitigate the Balance of Payments Deficits. Our development depends on a robust Fiscal regime which is being damaged by these crooks. We demand action now.
@ Karl Max Reloaded, you are speaking my mind.
Who is corrupt between this guy and Rupiah Banda?
Dear President Lungu, you are the only one who can recover this loan for us. Mr sata had gone to bed with he post. RB tried but the Post were faster than him.
I guess HH can’t manage them at the rate we are going. HH has already gone to bed with Fred.
Please President Lungu, recover this money for us.
@Karl, I am sure that you would agree with me that the same application should be extended to Times of Zambia and Zambia Daily Mail who each owe 10 times more than the Post.
@ KARL MAFI OFFLOADED
The same thief you are talking about helped bring into power Pf and destiny favoured Edgar and he is now president. fred spent all his energies clearing destiny for edgar. all his money went into bringing about a life for edgar.
how come mwanawasa and sata never piled pressure on fred? it shows that, when you are good books with those in government you are let off the hook.
if mmembe had sung ” mwanaona aLungu naku sebenza kwao,” he would be ambassador for the good professional journalism in zambia.
Have chickens finally come home to roost for the untouchable FM?
The best is to seize all printing equipment to recover the our 22 billion.
Then he can continue with his farming and campaign for division.
and busy are busy criticising ZRA and GVT, this punk has been stealing from us. the k16million can build a lot of infrastructure. talk about the loan from DBZ he has neglected to pay. and some ***** will defend a plunderer and say it is political…
And support him when he is busy tainting other people with the corruption tag!
How can this be news when “the letter [was] written to Fred M’membe on 19th September, 2014”? You should be reporting on the latest position!
@MMD Chief Bootlicker -now you are being radical,rational & liberal!That’s how adults should blog.When we in UPND say Zambia is now a Failed State(you & your mercenary mafias in pathetic PF perceive it normal) as all institutions & pillars of good governance have collapsed compounded with policy inconsistencies!
But your HH has already gone to bed with Mmembe and he is now in his pocket . Desperation!
ZRA has conveniently leaked this letter to the media now.
What was happening in the last ten months from the time the letter was written?
In a sane system where laws govern Fred would have settled this a long time ago but then in this system governed by drunks people remember nkongole when you don’t buy them a beer.
@itiz, what is your problem? You really can’t rest from your politics?
Let him pay and that money can solve some of the challenges the country is facing.
@MMD Chief Bootlicker -now you are being radical,rational & liberal!That’s how adults should blog.When we in UPND say Zambia is now a Failed State(you & your mercenary mafias in pathetic PF perceive it normal) as all institutions & pillars of good governance have collapsed compounded with policy inconsistencies,unemployment,balkanisation & illiterate primitive citizenry!Now you have people with ill education such as Emmanuel Mwamba,Chella,Katele,Dora,Liato,Kapoko,Fred Mmembe,Mulenga Sata,Kaiser Zulu,Chama,Mumbi,Kambwili,Lungu & Libongani controlling the Zambians!
We cannot be paying tax well Fred Membe is not! Not paying tax is a criminal offence! Cage the thief membe!!
So this chap is indeed a criminal. Why does he always call others corrupt when he is re one that is? When many of us pay taxes on our little hard earned income, he fails to remit even what he collects as VAT & PAYE. Please recover this money quickly and blacklist the chap to do business in Zambia. Now we understand why he is always writing ill about Edgar. The man is the devil himself.
This is not a political move, but fraud and criminal. In developed countries they would ensure he rots in jail.
If the Jesus story is not a fairy tale, HIS SECOND COMING IS DUE AND HIS DESTINATION IS ZAMBIA. My prayer is GOD SAVE ZAMBIA BY A MIRACLE for the sake of the children If GOD does not answer this prayer then we are stuffed.
I am really pushing that we close this country and sell it back to the British at a profit. When somebody is in good books with the government, all is well, All laws are disregarded. When he is on the other side, you unleash. I mean Fred Mmembe should have been pursued even when he was in good books with President Sata. We cant run a country like that, we should run the country based on laws and not friendship. If we have failed, 14 million Zambias lets agree we sell it and just start renting our residence here, otherwise i see failure almost every where. And even when opposition accend to power they will do the same.
I don’t see any sense as to why The Post Newspaper was given a weaver in paying VAT and PAYE. This money isn’t supposed to be channelled into the business operations of The Post because it is merely collecting money on behalf of govt. It is a fraud for a company to use VAT collected for the purposes of running the company. ZRA is also incompetent on this one.
This the main reason Mmembe wants to control every President. And people don’t see this.
I pay tax at pay point and I expect others to do the same. BBC was interviewing a Soweto woman on why she has not been paying electricity bills for the last 10 years. Her answer? “that is what ANC was promising us during the struggle- free water 7 electricity”. Is this a curse on Africans, refusing to pay for services?
Why did you waive K16,000,000? ZRA auctioned my vehicle at the border because i failed to pay duty on time. Why did they fail to wait for me to find the money or why did they fail to consider a waiver for as well.
Mmembe the self-righteous pontificate and moraliser is the biggest fraud in Zambia. And conman.
You only have to see, not read, the vomit he spews in his gutter so-called paper to realise he is a megalomaniac deceiving the gullible.
Just throw him in jail and throw away the keys.
What are you waiting for?
We need all the tax money to supplement borrowed money for infrastructure
Something is terribly wrong in this country. Look at the lecturers issue at CBU, people can’t say fire this one. People are supposed to say this is the issue at hand and others take action. How can you be the jury and judge at the same time. That is arrogance.
CBU lecturers just need to be fired. The same professor they don’t want could be as kokai like them. They have just taken one position of fire the professor-very dull
Imwe ba ZRA also you are not serious. How can an anti Government small man owe Government so much money and let scot free for so long when you slap heavy tax on poor and innocent people on purchased farm lands and motor vehicles? Are you in cartel with the Post and this M’membe?
Let the Post pay what is due to Government without delay because the money is badly needed for developmental projects.
M’membe is the same man who is busy spreading false information and hatred on the Government of Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu everyday and you let him evade tax when you are punishing innocent people trying to farm land for production and employment creation, BE SERIOUS or you will get the boot too.
I don’t know why our government fail to act on this dog m’membe.who is he that he can be causing confusions in the country?Mbulu iwe!This tax should be collected from m’membe without further delay.This tax is government revenue which is used to develop the nation.Even the bible encourages that (give to God what is for God and to Cesar what is his