ZRA claims K8.7 billion raised from mining companies between 2018 and 2023

Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has revealed that more than K8.7 billion was raised from the mining sector through tax assessment audits.

This covered the period between 2018 and 2023.

Commissioner-General, Dingani Banda, said this in Lusaka at a media briefing on Building Capacity to Regulate the Mining sector: 2006-2024 Reforms from a Tax Administration Perspective on Friday.

Banda told journalists that they were able to raise over K8.7 billion between 2018 and 2023 from the tax assessment audits carried out in the mining sector.

“If we were to show you some of the tax assessment that have been done from the mining sector from 2018 ..over a six-year period…we have raised tax assessments arising from these audits of K8.7 billion from 2018 to 2023.

“Of course we do have about 39 cases where there are pending outstanding objections from the mining sector but these are only to a tune of K1.9 billion,” he said.

Banda also talked about the need to bring sanity in the emeralds sector as most players were not tax compliant.

He warned that the authority was considering tough penalties for players in the emerald sector who were not tax compliant, particularly those who do it deliberately.

Banda expressed concern that despite Zambia being one of the top emerald producers in the world, the country had not benefited from it in terms of taxes.

He, therefore, warned that ZRA would be making tough recommendations on this issue to derive value for the benefit of the country.

“You look at our numbers, we have over 400 taxpayers registered from this sector, 99 percent of revenues comes from just two mines, emeralds, just two. So, we need to bring sanity, with an automated system we will see who has a license, are they reporting production, are they paying mineral royalty and so forth.

“We will have all those controls enhanced and as ZRA we will be making tough recommendations on this because we need to derive value for the benefit of the country from these resources,” Banda explained.

He, however, added: “Our desire is to have voluntary compliance. If you have challenges in paying and it is very clear, the law has empowered the Commissioner-General to enter into a deferment plan.

“What we do not want are those who run away and we start investing resources to chase them to compel them to comply.”

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