Mines Minister, Paul Kabuswe has refuted circulating social media reports suggesting that the government has sold its shares in Kansanshi Mine.
Speaking in Kitwe when he met mine union leaders, Mr Kabuswe clarified that government has not sold its shares but has instead changed its tax model system from the dividend to the royalty model.
He said this entails that government will be getting its proceeds from the company constantly whether the company makes profits or not.
“In the dividend model you have to wait for a company to make a profit and then declare a dividend that is when you get value but the royalty model is a constant agreement whether the company makes a profit or not you have to still get value,” he explained.
Mr Kabuswe said government was prompted to change the model because it was not getting enough value from the mining asset and it was getting a lot of complaints on the matter.
He explained that the process was started by the previous government and it had reached an advanced stage and the New Dawn government decided to adopt it to maximize national benefits from the mining sector.
Earlier, the Minster told the union leaders that his ministry was in talks with Vedanta Resources to unlock the mine.
“ Yes we are in talks with Vedanta Resources and also working on the issue of Mopani, I do not want to give you raw information but we will tell you when we conclude and l will be giving weekly updates on the progress and on these other mines you have raised concern on I am aware of the challenges and we are working on all of these, we are focused as government we know where we want to take the mining sector, and I will be receiving reports from a number of these other mine managements next week,” he said
Earlier Mine unions appealed to the Minister to address the challenges at Mopani, Konkola Copper Mines, Chambeshi Metals, Luanshya Copper Mines and Kasenseli Gold Mine to ensure that they are back on full operations and workers remain in stable employment.
MUZ president, Joseph Chewe who led the others said workers were worried about the security of their jobs while suppliers were also not being paid by these mines that are either closed or struggling in operations while government was losing out on revenue.
The unions that were represented include the Mine Union of Zambia (MUZ), National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) United Mine Workers Union (UMUZ) among others.
The most useless government of all times..
NO NO ITS NOT THE MOST USELESS GOVERNMENT TODATE
PF ARE IN FIRST SPOT FOLLOWED BY UNIP IN THE DISTANT PAST
My understanding is that a dividend is a return on investment. ZCCM-IH has invested in that mine. A royalty is like a rent which must be paid for exploiting our resources regardless of whether they’re making profit or not. A tax is on the income paid when a profit is made. If you decide to sell those shares I’ll support you as that will redeem the funds held up as they’re not earning anything. Those are dormant shares. And because no profits have been declared govt has been losing out on both dividends and income tax. This is why we opposed the decision to make mineral royalty deductible on the P&L. 3.1,% isn’t a great achievement because the last push was for 6%. Anyway something is better than nothing. I urge you to push for more
On a personal note, I think you need to reorganize your Constituency office. Due to the nature of your work you need a professional to help you run that office. It’s convenient to mine players to meet you at Chililabomwe than Lusaka because major mines are here. While it’s also your duty to deal with grassroot problems like collapsed houses, funerals and providing mealie meal to the needy, there are equally other important national matters that I don’t think your current staff at that office can handle. I trust that you’ll soon do something about it
Idi Amin is back
“Paul Kabuswe has refuted circulating social media reports suggesting that the government has sold its shares in Kansanshi Mine.”
This is what happens when you have wrong people in ministries … a statement was issued by that empty suit in Ministry of Information last week but was not clear it was merely published and signed by her and no opportunity was given to ask questions because she is incompetent and can not read.
And then you have this other empty suit in Ministry of Mines, he is talking about policy changes as if it was rectified in Parliament, he does not tell you the figures involved in the royality model but last time I read patry figures of between $50 – 80million US dollars for a company generating a billion dollars from copper sales.
Meanwhile our President is preparing to fly to Washington to see old Joe and take a selfie…instead of hosting a press conference and attending to national matters
Disclaimer: I am not an accountant of sorts.
Is the Minister suggesting that you cant have both loyalty and CIT(corporate income tax)? I wonder.
At least you have acknowledge that this was something the previous government started.
Bwana Minister sir, we can do more to get value out of our natural endowments starting with all the MiNIERALS and from ALL the Mining houses besides kansanshi.
Its all about re configuring our PPPs. The simple equation is that: As a country we have natural resources(read: natural capital accounting) including human capital while the investor partner comes with technology and finances. How to share: we get minimum 50 % of the proceeds. FULL STOP.
..MINERALS…
“Government assures Mine Union Leaders that it has not sold its shares in Kansanshi Mine” -LT
Political parties love to use the word government when they are caught with one’s hand in the cookie jar. GRZ is responsible because let’s political parties got away with mitigation. We Use the Government when it’s convenient to political parties.
GRZ what’s going on with your Political parties?
Taxation without representation.
He is merely defining what each terminology means ..instead of giving us the figures involved ..the taxpayers want to know of what benefit to them in terms of dollars from previous tax years. He deliberately omits that and social media will do it for him …and again he will come to refute because he didnt answer the question last time round.