The latest developments in mining production and taxation.. Zambias copper production is expected to reach 1.5 million tonnes in 2016 due to investment in mining infrastructure and technology. Zambia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (ZEITI) says the increase will also be driven by the opening of new mining projects and increased foreign investment in the country. Zambia is currently the world’s sixth largest copper producer with around 0.8m tonnes [Source: Daily Mail] Mining Minister Christopher Yaluma says there will be a serious improvement on mining tax collection this year due to increase in copper production. However he says that how much is ultimately collected on the processes GRZ has put in place. In his words, if we are careless, we wont account for quite a good number of tax. Yaluma says givernment has rejected the introduction of a windfall tax because it is [less] favourable to the government operation [Source: The Post] Charles Milupi [ADD] has attributed the Konkola Copper Mine Plc and Vedanta Resources saga to government’s failure to reintroduce windfall tax. Mulipi says, “Windfall tax works throughout the world, it taxes the windfall gain and that is why the structure of the windfall tax we had here in Zambia was a very straight forward issue....I dealt with windfall tax in details at committee stage in Parliament, it looked at the average production cost on the mine...I have been one of those few individuals who have been giving pressure on Rupiah Banda administration when the cancelled the windfall tax immediately after succeeding late president Levy Mwanawasa, I stood firm in Parliament and said it was wrong. I continued with PF come into power but it also refused to reintroduce the windfall tax [Source: Daily Nation] The Norwegian government is working with Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) special mining unit in up scaling capacity and competencies in the mine tax systems in Zambia. The project is allegedly aimed at ensuring Zambia gets the right taxes to demand from the large mining companies. They are also working at establishing a system of how much is being processed to avoid double counting, by defining appropriate percentages of copper ore and other minerals. The data collected in the past has not been clear on how much ore is being churned out per year from different mines and ore bodies in Zambia. [Source: Times] Britains Consolidated Nickel Mining and Investments Limited is this month expected to start operations at the defunct Munali Nickel Mine in Mazabuka as the major shareholder. Mines Minister Christopher Yaluma says the firm has entered into an agreement with former owners Jinchuan Group of China to take over the mine. Operations at Zambia’s sole nickel mine were paralysed in 2011 due to the plummeting base metal prices on the global market [Source: Times] QUESTION: Who is correct on mineral taxation revenues - Christopher Yaluma [PF] or Charles Mulipi [ADD]?
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 05:56:14 +0000
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