Expedite petroleum tax evasion cases, ZRA told

Tue, 04 Jul 2017 09:57:55 +0000

By KALOBWE BWALYA

ZAMBIA Revenue Authority (ZRA) should expedite investigations into allegations of tax evasion by some petroleum and energy import companies based in Zambia, High commission to South Africa Emmanuel Mwamba has said.

Mr Mwamba said the decision by ZRA to dishonour SADC certificates of origin of oil importing companies, had created an impression that Zambia was not complying with the SADC trade protocol.

He said some players in the energy and petroleum sector were allegedly taking advantage of the rules governing tax exemption of goods and products originating from the SADC region thereby denying the Zambian government the much needed revenue.

Mr Mwamba also noted that the decision by ZRA to suspend the honouring of SADC certificates of origin that enable importers to be tax exempted had negatively affected industries in Zambia especially the mining sector.

Mr Mwamba was speaking at the Zambian mission in Pretoria, South Africa  when a delegation from ZRA paid a courtesy call on him following their verification mission in that country for fuel imports with SADC certificates of origin and has since called for speedy conclusion of their investigations .

“ZRA should carry out field verification visits to oil processing companies based in SouthAfrica, to ascertain claims that the oil products they were importing were originating from other countries other than South Africa.

“ZRA should also speed up the process of clearing trucks carrying goods and entering Zambia, to help reduce the costs and inconveniences that transporters were facing and I have noticed that the process of clearance of goods at many Zambian borders is slow due to communication challenges,” said Mr Mwamba.

And ZRA deputy Commissioner, Reuben Kunda said the risk of revenue leakage was high among oil importers as some were taking advantage of the SADC protocol to smuggle petroleum and energy products into Zambia.

Mr Kunda said ZRA was putting stop-gap mechanism in place that would reduce issuance of SADC tax exemption certificates to underserving companies.

He disclosed that since the clearing system was internet based, ZRA was modernizing its communication infrastructure in many borders across the country to expedite the process of clearance of transporters of goods.

“I am urging all the transporters to make use of the online pre-clearing service before reaching the clearance points to avoid delays, “he said