Mining cheats don’t deserve tax relief – MP
By AARON CHIYANZO
THE decision by the new dawn government to award “cheating” mines more tax relief is a misplacement that will make the country lose even more millions, Chinsali Member of Parliament Kalalwe Mukosa has said.
Mr Mukosa said some mines which were benefitting from the removal of mineral royalty tax had been ripping off the country and denying Zambians their dues through under-declaration of production.
He said it was not a secret that some mines had been coming up with all sorts of schemes to avoid paying the right taxes to the State.
Mr Mukosa said it was surprising that the UPND government rushed to give the same mines more tax relief before sealing the leakages that cause the treasury to lose millions in revenue from the mines.
He said “cheating” mines do not deserve any tax relief as they were already denying the country of the much needed revenue.
Mr Mukosa said some mines which had been ripping off the country would become even richer at the expense of the poor.
He said the decision by the new dawn government to change the policy on mineral royalty tax was ill timed and a big blow to Zambians.
Mr Mukosa said with mineral royalty tax, the country was atleast able to benefit from the money which was paid for extracting minerals.
“Now it will be hard to benefit from our mines because the new dawn government did not first seal the loopholes leading to cheating by the mines. So now there will be cheating, plus tax relief,” he said.
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