THE Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has filed a notice of appeal in the Supreme Court against the High Court ruling in which The Post Newspapers was granted a stay of execution to restrain the authority from demanding full settlement of tax obligations.
This is in a case in which The Post Newspapers has appealed to the Supreme Court following the High Court’s dismissal of its application for judicial review over the proposal to pay the tax liabilities in instalments.
The Post Newspapers owes Government over K16 million, inclusive of penalties and liabilities.
The High Court has, however, ordered the Post Newspapers to honour its tax obligation with the government within 90 days of the disposal of its appeal in the Supreme Court.
The firm had earlier applied for judicial review in the Lusaka High Court following ZRA’s rejection of its proposal to pay the tax liability in instalments.
According to the notice of appeal filed in the Supreme Court registry last Friday, ZRA, through its legal department, stated that it was appealing against the whole judgment.
The Post Newspapers had earlier appealed against Lusaka High Court judge Mwiinde Siavwapa’s judgment of October 30, which favoured ZRA over disputed tax obligations.
The media organisation appealed to the Supreme Court against judge Siavwapa’s verdict, which allowed the ZRA to implement its demands to collect disputed tax figures from the
It is becoming clear that this whole saga is politically motivated. The High Court has given The Post Newspaper 90 days to settle ZRA the outstanding K16 Million which is reasonable considering the amount of money involved. If the Post fails to settle the money within 90 days, then ZRA can go ahead and shut it down, what is the hurry? Is it only The Post Newspaper owing ZRA?
And why did the Post run to the Supreme Court after the High Court riuling?
The 26 million that ZRA demanded before the Post went to court was cleared even before the high court judge made the ruling. The 16 million is a disputed amount coz ZRA does not even know that the Post owes no VAT and PAYE they are demanding for salaries that have not been paid yet.
which figure wil they present to the court because even a k1,00 down paymt makes zra claim innaccurate, best wud ve bin to wait for 90 days and issue warrant of distress on owing, any way. this is zra for you
For sure English is an alien language to most of you; the high court’s judgement which ZRA is contesting is not that the post should pay within 90 days, but rather that it should pay within 90 days AFTER THE DISPOSAL OF THE CASE IN THE SUPREME COURT. This is the judgement that ZRA is contesting and rightly so, especially if one considered how long many cases may take before they are disposed off by our courts of law. So please don’t just comment for the sake of it; analyse issues first.
@shichanda weyaya, thanks for clearing the air cos guys just type cos they want to type or to involve politics. For those with English problems, don’t comment but rather keep quiet for once
If the judge is in the post’s pocket, which is not a stretched thought, he could delay disposing of the case for who know how long and the 90 days will never start counting. What a world we live in!!!!
No politics involved in this matter bwana. There is something on record that the Post defaulted at some point despite the court ruling. ZRA know that even this time around they will still default. Guys it is from the same money that some of the things that this paper wants the Government should come from. It is like you sending me to buy bread and you don’t give me money in the meantime you blame me for not coming home without bread.
@shichanda, If you ar in finance u dont just make paymts anyhow, u pay for what is undisputed and object to figures that ar unclear or excessive, but payin tax is obvisious knowin shud u delay. your penalties wil go up though even on disputed figures, shud u lose your case u pay penalties, if the supreme court takes long, as u allege, why has zra gone there?the judgement had no jargons, the judge said the post wud close if forced to pay at once, give them 90 days, and the post agreed
Note its not the post appealing the high court judgement, as expert in english, interprete the first paragraph
Of interest ar issues like paying paye before your worker gets his or her salary,
Mmembe should pay his taxes and not hide behind ‘political persecution’ as a shield not to adhere to the law. Surely, if no one pays taxes, how would your business survive?
No matter wat story on the ground the post must pay the tax,the government is busy deducting tax from poor zambian’s salaries. The post must the tax,if that 90 days are over the zra should act.
Mmembe must just pay up, away with pomposity. Time to own up is now. Wasn’t the chap boasting that he can pay, and so why this litany of sspeeds?
Mmembe must just pay up, away with pomposity. Time to own up is now. Wasn’t the chap boasting that he can pay, and so why this litany of appeals?
Mr. Fantasy let us not fantasize over straight forward issues here. Appealing against a judgement is a legal avenue available to any party which feels aggrieved by a judgement from a lower court. The Post has of late maximised on using this avenue; which is within their rights. And I believe ZRA is simply also trying to utilise the same available provision of law as they feel the high court judgement was not fair.
As for the issue of when does PAYE accrue; even a first year student of accounting will tell you that it is WHEN SALARIES BECOME DUE up to the 14th day of the following month and not when actually paid. Boss, both NAPSA and PAYE accrue from the pay day and payable within 14 and 10 days of the following month respectively. In short you can accrue salaries but for statutory…
@shichanda thats rite, the court had all that information. history of tax paymts and liquidty issues leadin to arrears in salaries and giving them time deemed most appropriate, the spirit of law is fairness, is that the judgement zra feels is unfair? how about times,daily mail. is that the route zra is taking?
It was good money but not anymore. Just get a few dollars Mr. Meembe, change to Kwacha and pay now.
@shichanda, Perhaps issue is not that of evading tax, tight cash flows while tryn 2 strikea balance between competing needs, salaries, to avoid strike, taxes etc, and this entity is a goin concern while zra ar not shylock who cud b agitated by pure liquidity issues,unless zra has seen money layn idle in the bank the post a\cs, i gues they cud ve gnashed by now, accepting court judgement and pursuing several others wud sound most approriate