Zamtel has announced that it has so far paid a total of K 93.3 Million in 2017 to dismantle both historical and current liabilities owed to the Zambia Revenue Authority.
Of the figure, K61 Million was for historical while K32.3 Million has been paid towards the current tax liability.
Recently, Zamtel made a K10.7 million payment to the ZRA towards dismantling the tax debt and a further K44 million by way of debt-swap with the Government.
On Monday, Zamtel made another K12 million towards clearing its historical debt liability.
At a news briefing in Lusaka on Tuesday, Zamtel Chief Executive Officer Sydney Mupeta said the development is significant as it goes to reaffirm the company’s commitment to liquidating its historical obligations.
Mr Mupeta further said that the payment is testament of Zamtel’s commitment to cleaning up its tax books with the tax authority.
“As a State Owned Enterprise, we are fully aware of the need for tax payers like ourselves to be tax compliant. These are the same funds that are channeled towards service delivery for the public good and paying for drugs in hospitals and equipping our schools,” Mr Mupeta said.
Mr Mupeta added that the payment of historical debt also symbolizes the growth trajectory that Zamtel is experiencing.
“As an organization, we are fully cognizant of the fact that we still have more to do but this development alone shows that this organization has turned turning the corner and heading in the right direction. I applaud the efforts by the Government of the Republic of Zambia through the Zambia Revenue Authority to increase tax collections,” he said.
He added, “The zeal and innovation at ZRA is clear for all to see, and as partners in development, we applaud the Commissioner General and his team for their efforts. The success of the recent tax amnesty is another example of how ZRA is working towards tax efficiency.”
Mr Mupeta emphasized that the bulk of the tax debt being cleared is very historical adding that Zamtel is committed to ensuring that this tax burden is completely dismantled.
“The future of Zamtel is very bright, we are on course with our $280 million investment that will give us the best network coverage that the country has ever seen. We have started implementing our first 100 sites out of the 1,009 sites. This will give Zamtel 4.5G with speeds of up to 240 Mbps for our fixed customers, 4G for our mobile customers, best-in-class customer experience and best-in-class quality of service,” Mr Mupeta said.
And ZRA Commissioner General Kingsley Chanda commended Zamtel for its commitment to be tax compliant by making timely payments towards clearing the historical debt.
Mr Chanda emphasized that it is commendable that Zamtel is now current in its tax payment and urged other state owned companies to emulate the telecoms firm.
He said Zamtel is one of the companies that took advantage of the ZRA tax amnesty which he said has greatly enhanced tax collection for the authority.
Living by example.
In simple Zambian English, ZATEL are performing well paying their dues to ZRA all because of Presdeint Lungu.
Cut the BS people, I am a woman of substance and I know when a man offers me a gold ring and offers me something fake.
What am I talking about you might be wondering, well I am telling you THAT President Lungu is one of the best President president over an African country now.
If he wanted he would have kept HH longer, if he wanted he would have jailed Kambwili for no reason because he can.
So cut the nonsense and realize that, we are arguable being led by one of the GREATEST President we could have the privileged of having.
Can I have an Amen?
That is right, I hold a PhD, my name is Mushota Chilufya Chimfwembe.
Thanks
BB2014,2016
Why didnt ZRA close ZAMTEL just like they closed the Post? Why did they have to wait for them to pay off the debt?
The topic is about ZAMTEL, why are you ranting about ECL being great on this topic?.
Why did it take you so long to come up to that conclusion, iwee PHD. This is not your own thinking, we need to do a plagiarism check.
Otherwise ni ma rubbish chabe !!!
Why Musokotwane failed to do this? Just name, and get a job. Names like Christopher Mvunga.
LAP green no longer exist since Gaddafi was ……
But, Zamtel should pay money to Mutati, so umwaiche Sydney won’t be haunted by ghosts of Libya.
So you pay historic tax and you announce without shame…really laughable…if only all businesses had that option there would be no revenue in ZRA coffers!!
Mushota you and your fake degree are all little turds…working in nursing homes ati UK UK…
All fake….
Mushota, you clearly don’t understand what a Democracy is, and you very clearly don’t have a PHD.
I say this bacuebof just the one sentence you wrote..
“If he wanted he would have kept HH longer, if he wanted he would have jailed Kambwili for no reason because he can.”
Shameful.
Mshotah – ZAMTEL is a govt institution, not private. How do you compare the two? Govt cannot penalize itself – where in the world does that happen?
Very good ZAMTEL! Dialogue….Dialogue…communication…..plans….
That’s how ZRA it should have behaved towards Mnembe`s Newspaper, which would have benefited both ZRA and Mnembe`s employees. Dialogue and payment plans were needed and not being political and destroying the newspaper.
Unfortunately, ZRA acted on political orders to destroy the Newspaper, the result is that neither ZRA nor Mnembe Employees have not benefited. The only people with smiles are the politicians who gave the orders.
@Kanyenye: Your first sentence, very good. As you were proceeding, the spirit of bitterness and hate possessed you. Tell me this, did ZAMTEL rush to court to place injunctions??? They dialogued, planned and communicated with the taxman, not try to intimidate the taxman with courts. M’membe tried to use his influence from state house and the judiciary to keep the taxman at arms length but it backfired when his connection at state house was cut by ECL and his defender at the judiciary, Mutembo, was fired for abusing his office. Couple that with the Supreme Court ruling that ruled against him to pay all his current and outstanding (from 2009 to 2015!!) taxes and he was a sitting duck. AS A PART OF THE MEDIA-THE “FOURTH ARM OF GOVERNANCE”, M’membe was suppose to be neutral; A referee, but…
…he chose an antagonistic and political stance and exposed himself to the filth of politics.
Ok ka @Zambian Citizen,
As you have just openly described, the closure of the Post was not all about the independent judicial ruling. But your ECL had a hand in this case, as he wanted to cut M’membe influence.
As an individual or as a legal entity M’membe or the Post were exercising their democratic right to challenge the taxman, and that is okay. But because PF and ECL were power hungry, they wanted to eliminate the Post to prevent it from challenging ECL. You are so thick headed that you get caught up in your argument. My point above was exactly that, ECL shouldn’t have gotten involved at all, and should have let the court ruling free of political influence. PLEASE, TAKE A FEW MINUTES to reflect, what is PF doing wrong?
Now this is where you think your intellect is better than most people when it is actually mediocre. M’membe put himself in a pickle when he stopped paying taxes way back in 2009. When the taxman approached him, he tried to use his political influence and the courts controlled by his friend Nchito to push ZRA backwards. All ECL did was to remove that influence. Fred M’membe had cases to answer, he was already evading and avoiding his statutory obligations. Any business in Zambia that does what he did, gets into trouble. If Mwanawasa or Sata was still president, it would be court dates after court date, ECL simply stopped that!! That coupled with dwindling sales after the PF hoard of readers stopped buying his paper, he had no income to pay his huge debt that accumulated over 6 to 7 years…
…He became insolvent. Supreme Court rightly ruled in ZRAs favour, all commercial entities must pay tax. There was no political interference there. The only political “interference” was ECL removing the state house umbrella that previously gave Fred an unfair advantage and correcting the anomaly in the judiciary that also gave him the ability to break laws with impunity. Easy on the insults, thought your intellect is above that; Maybe I was wrong…
Finance Minister Mr Mutati on Friday last week in Parliament misled the country that Zamtel has not yet paid any taxes after the repossession…Mr Mutati is a danger to the Government his own interests is to sell State Owned Companies to his friends…
No word about the $380 Million payment order to LAP Green?
With an investment margin of $280 million, it would be interesting to know whether the company can settle such huge labilities and still be able to sustain it’s future profitability.
The storm is only begining to brew.
The company is running on fumes…
@NineChale, I hope you do understand that if the $380 million LAP Green judgement stands (not appealed or ignored by the Zambian Govt) the entity on hook for that debt is GOVT OF ZAMBIA and not ZAMTEL. It is the Govt of Zambia that grabbed LAP Green’s Interests (Shares) in ZAMTEL and NOT Zamtel’s Board or as a Company per say. And guess where and how Govt gets its money? Yes, through TAXES from Corparations/Companies like ZAMTEL itself and others. Including those owned by people who think this does not affect them. So ZAMTEL is already doing its part by taking care of its Tax obligations, current and past….PLEASE UNDERSTAND HOW THESE THINGS WORK!
Who cares? You are still owing 4380Million to Lap Green of Lybia anyway. And why do you ZRA puppy-heads seem to be so understanding towards ZAMTEL and yet you were in a hurry to close down The Post? Remember what is happening to Kashimba Chimbwili right now, as if he was never a Minister in this PF government. The same will happen to you, the day the PF will turn on you will be just one day and they will forget how you devilishly connived with them to close down The Post newspaper.
Exactly my point. Now it’s time to start paying lapgreen $280m as per court order
@Judge Masipha, three things are aparent to me after reading your post:
1) It is either you have a short memory or you are deliberately ignoring facts about Mmembe (The Post) vs ZRA saga. Please refresh your memory with facts still readily available on line if you care to look.
2) You are conviniently playing dumb as NOT to know that the $380 million judgement (if it stands) is against the Govt of Zambia and NOT Zamtel.
3) You are a Political sychophant who can’t distiguish between a BUSINESS ISSUE (which is Zamtel and its Tax obligations) and Political Shananagans (which is Kambwili and his phony antics.) Because I completely don’t see the similarities between the two issues.
Again my post withdrawn.. pipo k 44 million of that was debt swap with govt so k93million not paid. What proof that it has been paid, lets see financials from zamtel.
This is for IMF as one of their conditions is greater tax collection. If all this tax is being collected why are civil servants not being paid
You are right, my first post also got deleted.
How did Zamtel fall back into this situation when all the outstanding taxes were paid off in full in 2010 during the LAPGREEN transaction?
When Sata told you ZAMTEL deal was fruadulant, what do you think he was talking about? Because it is very possible that Govt took over the debt instead of LAP Green. The best person to answer your question is RB and his MMD, they are the ones who struck that deal with LAP GREEN. Also making public these sort of deals/sales that Govt make on behalf of Zambian Citizens would go a long way in bringing some sanity in this area. Same thing with the Mines. I bet up to now no ordinary Zambian (even most Parliamentarians) understands or knows exactly what “SWEETENERS” are in the Minning deals Govt signed decades ago….why they remain so SECRETIVE is beyond me. Frankly, it is this way of doing people’s business (Govt deals) that has encouraged and bred corruption in most developing Countries,…
No different from the situation of “The Post”. If politics can affect corporate attitude of Government, we can never realize the real benefits of a free market economy.
Saying that post should have been spared liked zamtel is same as comparing apples ne myungu. Can one 1diot tell me when zamtel took zra to courts defending paying tax. Fred sued zra and lost both high court and supreme Court cases while zamtel entered into an agreement on how to settle the huge tax.
Zamtel was only behind in payments while Fred refused to pay.
Correctly Observed…
@Yambayamba, obviously your PF political inclinations are clouding your thinking and making it difficult for you to be objective. Put aside the alleged corruption in the transaction, a matter which should have been dealt with if it was proved to be true. The truth is that as part of the transaction in 2010, the taxes Zamtel owed ZRA were cleared! So how has Zamtel gone back to a problem which was resolved? May be the Zamtel business model is not viable!
Kkkk you are afraid the minister might liquidate you after stopping you from flying first class since you are not first class? Now give GRZ a plan for repaying the debt owed to lapgreen once it’s paid out on your behalf