By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
GOVERNMENT is being proactive by undertaking tax relief measures which will save businesses from collapsing, says Zambia Association of Manufactures (ZAM) president, Ezekiel Sekele.
He said the waiving of penalties and interest on all outstanding tax liabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic period would ease cash flow pressure for businesses.
Finance Minister, Bwalya Ng’andu, yesterday announced a new set of additional tax relief measures which included waiving of tax penalties and interested.
The first set of tax relief measures were announced about three weeks ago.
In response, Mr Sekele said in an interview in Lusaka that the initiative would cushion cash flow pressure which had started to build up in businesses.
“Initiatives such as waiving penalties is a good thing because it will cushion cash flow pressure because we will soon start seeing pressure building up on cash flow for a number of businesses.
“And businesses can collapse so the minister has taken this right decision. It is early and the minister is being proactive and for us an industry, we will continue to engage with Government,” Mr Sekele said.
He said ZAM welcomed such initiatives as they were timely and positive which demonstrated Government’s commitment to ensure businesses did not collapse.
Mr Sekele said Government had implemented a number of tax relief measures as a result of continuous engagements with the private sector a number of other key stakeholders.
“The measure of waiving penalties is welcome and we know this is just the second step, two weeks ago we met with the minister and he announced a number of measures.
“This is not the end, there is more that can be done because we are all learning as we get deeper into this COVID-19,” Mr Sekele said.
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