GOVT NOT GETTING ENOUGH TAXES FROM MINERALS
…. even organizations such as IMF, World Bank & others are laughing at us, says Dr. M’membe
Lusaka… Thursday September 5, 2024
Socialist Party (SP) President Dr Fred M’membe says Zambia is not getting enough taxes from its mineral resources.
Dr. M’membe alleges that even international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and others must be laughing at the country for failing to get the much needed taxes from the minerals.
Dr. M’membe has lamented that foreign entities are the ones benefiting in almost all sectors of the economy.
He said it is sad that foreign based companies have dominated in industries such as telecommunications, construction, energy, poultry and others.
He said instead of the money remaining in the country, it is flying out.
“Are these not the businesses our people are supposed to run? Can Zambians run those businesses and keep that money here and continue to lend our people for them to be innovative in their businesses. And if we are letting this money to fly out, what are we leaving here? We are failing to get enough money from the minerals. Even the IMF, World Bank and others are laughing at us. They are telling us that you are failing to collect enough revenues from the minerals. The same people who defend these institutions,” he said.
“In everything whether it’s fueling stations, it’s foreigners. Fueling stations selling petrol, diesel and paraffin, it’s done by foreigners. They (foreigners) have even gone into poultry, growing vegetables, making building blocks, and they don’t keep their money here in the country. They have devised schemes to take the money out of the country. What is going to remain here for our people to use to develop the country and in the process develop themselves?”
Meanwhile, Dr. M’membe has urged the government not to use shortcuts in restoring the economy.
He says there are many countries in the world that have double digit inflation rates but their economies are doing well.
“They say inflation is too much money chasing few goods. That definition may sound so simple but it is correct. So if you want to bring down the rate of inflation what you need to do is either to increase the goods and services so that there is not much money chasing few goods. But we know that producing more goods and services require a lot of efforts and takes longer. So usually there is a tendency to go to a shorter time and it is easier. It’s just to reduce the money supply so that you don’t have too much money chasing few goods. That you can do in a short period of time of about three to six months, you are done. And the current Zambian goverment decided to do that. Moved from an inflation rate of about 24% to below 10% to a single digit, that can be done any fool can do that very easily,” he explained.
“The countries that have double digits are not fools. You have Turkey with a good economy having a double digits inflation. It’s not that they don’t have good economies but they have realized that they need to strike a balance. If you reduce the money supply so quickly and drastically, you are hitting effective demand. People will have no money to purchase anything. When effective demand is reduced it means also those who are producing are not selling, nobody buys.”
He said such happenings always result in job losses for the workers.
This kind of thinking that we should over tax the mining sector is what almost collapsed the industry in the previous regime and the sector has still not yet fully recovered but if baffles me that someone can start talking of doing the exact thing which brought us problems we are facing today.
If mining is such a lucrative industry why did ZCCM fail to run the mines? And we are complaining about the mines being owned and run by foreigners, who is stopping Zambians from opening and owning mines? I’m sure Mr. Mmembe has no idea how hard it is to run the mines but some of us who have worked in the mining industry for a long time know that it takes a lot of discipline, patience and good management skills to run a mine, especially copper whose prices flactuate frequently.
This clown and his deputy who is speaking to Russia about nuclear energy. Did the Russian sell that tag to the British at an overpriced tag?
Didnt the same Russians promise the same to the south africans?now after failing there Mmembe should make us follow their tag?
If you have nothing better to do Mmembe try sun basking….
You do not milk your cow dry. Before coming up with a tax regime which was acceptable by all parties, Zambia looked at the taxes from all copper producing countries in the world from the lowest to the highest. In the restructuring process, the figures were tabled. An agreement was reached where government was happy, and the mining companies were happy. This is how you do business. No wonder the PF destroyed our mines. M’MEMBE with this PF mentality thinks he can dictate harshly to international companies. They easily pull-out leaving miners suffering. Where would M’membe find investors to come in when he has no international connections? Didn’t Edgar fail to find investors? HH has done wonders by reviving the mining industry. We are not changing this government until they take 20 terms to come, and Zambia will be back as a rich country
Iit’s funny how Mr. Mmembe can talk about mines not paying enough taxes when he himself intentionally refused to pay taxes when he ran the now defunct post newspaper. If this isn’t the worst form of hypocricy then I don’t know what hypocricy is.