Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Taxes should be easy to comply with, President Lungu tells Mkushi farmers

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President Edgar Lungu Addressing Mkushi Commercial Farmers on Tuesday Night in Mkushi, The President is Visiting three Districts of Central Province, Luano , Mkushi and Serenje Inspecting developmental Projects..PICTURE BY EDDIE MWANALEZA/STATEHOUSE..
President Edgar Lungu Addressing Mkushi Commercial Farmers on Tuesday Night in Mkushi, The President is Visiting three Districts of Central Province, Luano , Mkushi and Serenje Inspecting developmental Projects..PICTURE BY EDDIE MWANALEZA/STATEHOUSE..

President Edgar Lungu has disclosed that he would not hesitate to waive presumptive taxes which farmers are subjected to pay if need be.

Speaking to mostly emerging and commercial farmers of Mkushi district yesterday, President Lungu said government has realised that taxes should be easy to comply with.

He said people always tend to evade tax if it is prohibitive.

“We have been talking about presumptive taxes and other taxes, I will not hesitate in waiving them or scraping them off because I realise that taxes should be easy to comply with,” he said.

He noted that patriotic citizens should feel duty bound to pay tax so that the money realised can be used to improve the wellbeing of the country.

President Lungu pointed out that making tax rates reasonable will prompt patriotic citizens to comply with their tax obligations.

“If taxes are prohibitive, people tend to cheat anyway and that is what we do not want. And the collection of these taxes without willing compliance by the farmers becomes very expensive,” he said.

The President noted that when people feel that the taxes are oppressive, excessive and are not being applied on their intended purpose, taxpayers tend to become defaulters.

“If taxes are prohibitive, people tend to cheat anyway and that is what we do not want. And the collection of these taxes without willing compliance by the farmers becomes very expensive,” he said.

He said he will engage relevant authorities on the feasibility of scrapping off certain taxes in the country.

President Lungu further said there were many things that should be put in place before waiving certain taxes.

“I want to assure you that your concerns will be looked into but I will not pledge that I will take this position or that position but suffice to say that a solution will be found with consultation with my colleagues in the Zambia Revenue Authority and Ministry of Finance and indeed Agriculture,” he said.

President Lungu stated that his government was aiming at making investment in the agriculture sector attractive.

“Let me assure that we are cautiously endeavouring to make Zambia a better destination for investment than it has ever been before,” he said.

And President Lungu has observed that politics surrounding the production of maize can only be ended if Zambians diverse crop production and consumption.

He said the crop of maize was politicised because it was the country’s staple food.

“We are trying to revisit this crop of maize. Maize should be a commercial crop like other crops that are free of politics,” he said.

And President Lungu reiterated that his administration would endeavour to improve the agriculture sector which he said could be relied upon more than copper for economic development.

He has since called for dialogue between farmers and his government on the best ways to grow the sector in the country.

The President also revealed that his government would increase the act of damming, water harvesting and use in order to support the agriculture industry in the country.

He said there was a lot of run-off water from Zambian rivers into Mozambique and eventually in the Indian Ocean.

Earlier Mkushi farmers’ association representative, Andrew Moffat, complained of many taxes and other requirements which make farming a very expensive business.

Mr. Moffat said farmers were subjected to paying a lot of taxes some of which they do not understand.

President Lungu is on a fact finding mission of development programmes in Central province.

During his tour of duty, the head of state has been holding meetings with chiefs whom he encouraged to uphold peace, unity, love and respect to all Zambians regardless of the tribe and region they were coming from.

Today, the President held meetings with chiefs Mailo, Chibale, Serenje, Kabamba and Chsomo among others.

32 COMMENTS

    • So Edgar understand these Farmers’ issues better than mining. When he went to meet Miners, nothing fruitful came out of him except “Job”. But read all article, everything sounds as if it was HH speaking to his fellow farmers (even though those are crop farmers, not ranches).

    • Which issue is clear from this clueless president? How many times has HH called this government to reduce the cost of doing business in Zambia. Looks like this blogger does to listen to voices of reason.

      Your or is it our president is always threatening everyone, mining companies, media houses (post newspaper), Tonga chiefs, and now his own ZRA , an agency he uses in dealing with his opponents.

      Farmers, please don’t be cheated, the man is empty, clueless and never proactive but always reactive to the extent that he summoned God to intervene in the mess he caused on the 18th of October. Welu welu , God does not take commands from His creation, especially when accompanied by ka Jameson

  1. Thats the way to go mr president be a consultative leader take on board concerns of all stake holders and government position in agriculture if Zambia is to win

  2. He shhould have had a meeting with the farm labourers and peasant farmers too. They are the ones who possess voters cards. Fertiliser yadula maningi

  3. This is very good for the president to do. Engage in dialogue with various partners, be bold enough to remove the bad eggs and lice from your team. You may not know everything because your turf is law and providing leadership, but if you work closely with a team of credible technocrats who are willing to criticize you and offer you with plausible solutions, you can come out tops. Consult, make good judgement and best decisions on what is right for the greater good, not to please individuals. You may not need crooks to keep you in power but the people through your deeds.

    • Very sound contribution Chester. Most politician are gullible concerning being fed with force information concerning the state of the nation and their own popularity. If only this trend can continue and results start pouring in, we would have hope to come out of this mess oneday!

    • He will waiver tax if he sees it fit…he clearly has no knowledge how national budgets are planned this is the selfsame reason why we have black markets in Africa.

  4. What presumptive tax do farmers pay imwe bantu please. Why is this man embarrassing himself like this. Live technical issues to your technocrats to advise you before you politic Mr President Sir. There is no such a thing as complicated presumptive tax for farmers please napapata ine ziko yathu. Where are we going with leaders like this sure. Nangu nikuso vision mwati ni so. Iyi yeve ya chila amo mwe. Im sure those boers were shocked to here how ill informed this president is. He is truly not fit for this office because this level of ignorance equivalent and may be seriously competes with one Kambwili.

    • @Lucy,farmers complained to him about taxes so they could have been the ones who talked about the presumptive tax. @Jay Jay he said he was going to consult and with ZRA and Ministries of Finance and Agriculture on how to waive taxes and also make maize less of a political crop. So it is better to look at the actual substance and realise that much as you may not like Lungu there are times he says and approaches issues properly.

  5. I thought presumptive tax is for Bus operators and Taxis. Bus drivers , Registered Taxi drivers and pirate Taxis seem not to pay this tax.

  6. THERE’S NO PEASANT FARMER IN ZAMBIA. ALL FARMER ARE JUST FARMER WHO ARE CATEGORISED AS COMMERCIAL (SCALE) FARMER, MEDIUM (SCALE) FARMERS, AND SMALL (SCALE) FARMER. WE KILL THE FARMING BUSINESS BY CALLING SOME FARMERS PEASANT FARMERS. LISTEN TO WHAT MR GUY ROBINSON SAID ON THIS VIDEO CLIP “https://www.lusakatimes.com/2015/11/26/107520/” AND I FOR ONE BELIEVE HIM. FARMING IS A BUSINESS AND IT SHOULD BE TAKEN ON AS SUCH. AND TO MAKE IT EVEN BIGGER ZAMBIANS SHOULD STOP CALLING SOME FARMERS PEASANTS. THAT’S WHY EVEN BANKS HAVEN’T BEEN GIVING THEM LOANS.

  7. Lungu is been mold into a good president so calm down to earth,everything he is talking about is something that is not political but reality and exactly what is suppose to be done and i suspect of those who are lazy in gvt now they have become active,seeking God’s guidance is what is moving this man,i guess he is an intercessor

  8. So here’s the thing, a farmer or company is required to register for VAT if their annual turnover exceeds K800,000 which automatically subjects them to provisional tax (company tax) and this includes commercial farmers. The rest who earn below this threshold are required to pay presumptive tax which is 3% of monthly turnover and for those with rental income it is a charge of 10% and this is called withholding tax. Now when I think of a big commercial farmer like the ones I see in this picture, I assume they already exceed this threshold of K800,000 and are already VAT registered which makes them provisional tax payers. Which means dunderhead Lungu was assuring them of scrapping taxes that they do not even pay in the first place. And we have some !diots here saying ati ‘well…

    • Dudelove – Unless the question was presented to the president ahead of time, I would not expect the president to be conversant with the details. His answer actually sounded better informed: all he has to do is raise the issue with the relevant department in his govt and ensure problem is addressed or clarified.

  9. Well Done Ecl But One Thing Yo Excellence I Suspect The Figures Mines Gave For Retrenchment Were Cooked By More Than 60%. These Mines Have Been Giving Big Figures For Reason Which ZRA Can Understand Well. Pls ZRA ,intelligence & NAPSA Comeup With A System Eg Id Which Govt Will Be Able To Know The Type & Number Of Workers A Company Has And Which Grade. This Time Foreign Companies Cheat They Have Employ 12000 Workers To Show They Are Paying Alot On Salaries What Remains Is Little Meanwhile They Change This To Dollars. Urgently Check & Change Things

  10. Last week I was in South Africa, the drought prone parts. The news media were talking about drought and how animals were dying. Malema appeared on SABC for an interview on the situation, and he said “…..We have hired a consultant from Zambia to advise us how to make use of dams that have no water. Many of you may not know him in south africa, he is called eh… eh…. ‘H’ something, I forget too. I understand that in his homeland, when he says that the load shedding is not caused by drought but failure of President Edgar Lungu, and that if he came into power the same dry dams at Kariba he would make them produce electricity, no one believes him. So if the Zambians do not want to use his managerial capacity, lwabo, us south africans will make use of that skill and pay him well for…

  11. Zambians Lungu is coping every thing that HH says this guy has no vision indeed just follow his speeches you will agree with me he is a very useless president Zambia gas ever had no plan of his own .

  12. farmers register for VAT. If he does dairy, meat, poultry, maize, soya bean he cannot claim his Input VAT back which increases his cost base by 16%. Only for wheat is VAT input tax claimable.

    When farmer buys tractor over 75hp he is charged VAT which he cannot claim back.

    When farmer imports livestock for breeding he is charged import duty.

    When farmer buys diesel or uses electricity he cannot claim VAT back.

    But guess what. The mines who have gang-raped Zambia get to claim all their VAT back.

    Which consultative process is the President engaging in when he agreed to absolutely ZERO of the budget suggestions that ZNFU put up ? When Govt needs votes, this is how they posture.

  13. Dudelove you are just as confused as the head of state when it comes to economic matters.

    Tvat tax for those whose turnover is less than 800,000 per annum is called Turnover Tax at 3%.

    There is no presumptive tax on farming.

    By definition, presumptive tax is when your turnover and profits cannot be ascertained and therefore a presumptive amount is charged to you. If you already knew your turnover was 800,000 what presumption needs to be made. Lucy was in fact correct and its shocking none of the posts above know the taxation laws in Zambia let alone the President.

    Sometimes its better to leave these type of things to “intellectuals”. Kikikik

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