…to grow the economy and reduce poverty
ZAMBIA should take steps to earn more money from foreign mining companies digging copper and other minerals in the country to grow the economy and reduce poverty, Anthony Mukwita has said.
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Mr Mukwita, Zambia’s former Ambassador to Germany said in an interview aired live on Millenium TV on New Year that the amount of money the foreign mining companies are externalising through tax evasion and avoidance could easily reduce poverty in Zambia if only the government took bold steps to tax the mines fairly.
Mr Mukwita said the figure of the money Zambia had been losing annually from unscrupulous mining companies had been pegged at about US$3 billion by international trackers.
“We have a company like Vedanta that has failed to pay huge electricity bills to Zesco, some banks and local suppliers billions of kwachas that could stimulate the economy, but they go scot-free…it boggles the mind why the government jumped back in bed with Vedanta given their bad record in Zambia,” said Mr Mukwita.
If the “poisoned chalice” Zambia-Vedanta deal goes through, ordinary poverty-stricken Zambian tax-payers will pay the Vedanta debt on behalf of the company but that remains to be seen.
Mr Mukwita added that this year, the government could also take deliberate steps and provide long term cheap financing for Zambians especially youths to create employment to feed neighbouring countries that were not as endowed as Zambians with water and fertile land so that they could buy food from the southern African nation instead of countries such as Argentina and Brazil.
“It still shocks many pundits that we keep seeking and begging for $3billion from the IMF as debt when we can collect that money from the mines and expansion in agriculture through farming blocs,” said Mr Mukwita.
He also described as sad the fact that Zambians today were still dying in huge numbers from eradicable diseases such as cholera in Africa´s second largest producer of copper.
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