By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
GOVERNMENT should not apply tax systems suitable for large corporate entities and apply them to small-scale and medium-scale enterprises as this will encourage tax evasion.
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It should therefore come up with an appropriate tax system that suits the small-scale and the artisanal, says Musamu Resources Limited Executive Chairman Sixtus Mulenga.
Dr Mulenga emphasized at the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA)/artisanal and small-scale miners’ workshop recently in Lusaka the need for affordable tax so people do not evade it.
“We are losing a lot of revenue because people in the small-scale sector are not yet on the platform at which they pay tax. For a business to be meaningful to the development of the country, it must pay a tax
“Now the tax issue is that we should not apply systems that are suitable for the large scale and apply them to small scale and medium scale. We need to come up with an appropriate tax system that suits the small scale and the artisanal because tax must be affordable if it is not affordable, people evade it,” he said.
He also observed the need to formalize and create a framework in which everyone involved in the small-scale mining sector pays tax.
At the same function, the ZRA Commissioner General Dingani Banda said a series of workshops and sensitization activities tailored for the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining sector across the country to promote voluntary tax compliance had been set up.
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