Tue, 27 Jun 2017 13:08:51 +0000
BY MAILESI BANDA
GRAIN traders should stop using small scale farmers to push their agenda of refusing to pay the 10 percent tax on the export of maize, Zambia Cooperatives Federation, (ZCF) Director General James Chirwa has advised.
Mr. Chirwa said the traders were the only ones benefiting from the export of maize, adding that the small scale farmers sold their grain locally.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Chirwa said claims by the grain traders that the 10 percent was affecting the small scale farmers were unfounded.
“The people exporting maize across the border are not small scale farmers but traders who buy the maize from small scale farmers at a give-away price and sell it on the export market,’’ he said.
He stated that the traders were making more money on the export market than the producers.
Mr Chirwa challenged the traders to be patriotic and share their profits with the Treasury by remitting the 10 percent tax.
“We must not mislead the nation that the tax being charged on the export of maize will harm the small scale farmers. No small scale farmer will be affected; it’s the traders to be affected and not the one laboring to produce the maize,’’ he said.
He explained that he was opposed to traders who were calling for the removal of the 10 percent being charged on the export of maize with the pretext that it would affect the small scale farmers, saying the traders were only serving their interests of making huge profits without the producers and the Government benefiting.
“We do not have a problem with the 10 percent that the Government has ranked on the export of maize. This is because we are not aware of small scale farmers that have access to the export market,’’ he said.
