Sat, 11 Mar 2017 15:22:37 +0000
LAKE Petroleum Limited will definitely be kicked out of Zambia because it is clear from the onset that the company does not have any legal documentation to support its business, sources within the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) have said.
And the Petroleum Transporters Association of Zambia (PTAZ) has praised the Ministry of Energy, ZRA and the ERB for their swiftness in curtailing the alleged illegal business at Lake Petroleum, saying this would deter companies owned by foreigners from taking advantage of the peaceful and friendly business environment in Zambia to perpetuate illegality.
This week, Zambian drivers unearthed a scam in which Lake Petroleum Limited has been importing fuel into the country using government bonds with the aid of Sahara, a fuel supplier contracted by government, under the disguise that the commodity was fed to TAZAMA when it has been feeding its own depot in Kapiri Mposhi.
This is after ERB suspended the importation of fuel by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
On Thursday, a team of officers from the Ministry of Energy, ERB and ZRA closed Lake Petroleum and gave the company 15 days in which to avail all relevant documents of its transactions to ZRA failure to which its depot in Kapiri Mposhi, the tankers and fuel stocks would be seized by Government and sold after 45 days.
But a sources within ZRA said among other irregularities the company had engaged in included the usage of the depot owned by liquidated company, Continental Oil in Kapiri Mposhi whose lease agreement was in doubt.
“Lake Oil needs to present a lot of documents. Firstly, that depot in Kapiri Mposhi is not theirs but for liquidated Continental Oil. They have to produce a lease agreement. The company also needs to give us a valid ERB licence for their business and avail us with all the details of the tankers that have been offloading there and where they were getting the fuel from.
“All this information is needed within 15 days, failure to which all their property, including the fuel they have imported will be seized by government and sold after 45 days and the premises will remain closed until the investigations are over so that there is no adulteration of the evidence.
“From the look of things, this could be the end of its business in Zambia because they won’t manage to meet all these benchmarks,” the source said.
“For a long time now, OMCs with roots from Tanzania have been taking advantage of the friendly business environment in Zambia and have been involved in all sorts of illegalities. This action taken by the ministry, ERB and ZRA is commendable and should be extended to other OMCs as well. “We are already hearing that there are trucks registered in Zambia which are already in Tanzania to get fuel for OMCs but where are they taking this fuel when there is a ban in Zambia? This is where the country needs to be alert because OMCs are given licences for the distribution and not importation of fuel into the country,” Mr. Tembo said.
