How to raise it?
Finance Minister Magande will put the meat on the bones of the President's speech that opened the session of tbe National Assembly, which included the shock announcement that the Government had given up on seeking a negotiated solution with the mining copmpnaies and would over-ride their Development Agreements, imposing new profit and windfall taxes.
The Lusaka Times suggests "Government has so far cheered a cross section of society that had over the years called on the New Deal Government to review taxes in the mining sector. Mr. Magande is expected to spell out new taxes in the sector following the conclusion of work by the mining negotiating team appointed to review and recommend taxes to be introduced."
How to spend it?
In line with calls made by Peter Sinkamba of Citizens for a Better Environment, The Lusaka Times reports that the opposition UPND has proposed the government plough back in communities where monies are operating, at least 5 percent of mineral royalties and 10 percent of windfall tax.
In an article in The Post, leading civl society activists put forward their positions:
- Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FFTUZ) president Joyce Nonde has said, “We want a budget that will translate the belief that the economy is doing well... We don’t want a budget that lets others go scot-free. It must touch all sectors of the economy; workers have been overburdened with high taxes for too long.” Nonde said workers were expecting the government to review tax measures to encourage them to save and invest in productive ventures. “We are expecting that the finance minister will reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) from the current 17.5 per cent to 14 per cent, relief on Pay As You Earn (PAYE) such that tax on the highest paid bracket will be reduced from 36.5 per cent to 30 per cent, on educational allowances and increasing the tax exempt threshold from the current K500,000 to K1,500,000... We also hope the government will reduce the 15 per cent withholding tax on rented houses to 10 per cent because resulting from the high withholding tax on rented houses, our members are complaining that has translated in high house rentals.” She also said she was expecting the government to allocate more funds to paying off the debt that it owes to pensions funds in workers’ contributions. “Government should pay the funds they owe NAPSA and other pensions bodies,” said Nonde. “Also if the minister can put a deliberate measure that if retirement packages for public service workers are not paid to pensioners within a year then their pension should be tax free because what happens is that many pensioners are paid late when their packages would have lost their value, in the meantime the government has been using their money.”
- Civil Society for Poverty Reduction acting executive director Ivy Mutwale said the expected increase from mining revenues should reflect in lessening the burden of taxation on the few people in the formal sector.And Mutwale said additional resources from the mines should reflect in the planning of poverty reduction programmes. She also said the 2008 budget was expected to reflect a correlation of the kwacha stability to poverty reduction. “The growing strength of the kwacha has not translated into meaningful tangible benefits for the ordinary Zambians,” she said. She said infrastructure development was to be backed by a realistic budget, otherwise it would be meaningless to build infrastructure and employ teachers and health personnel but fail to provide sufficient resources for them to deliver quality services.
- Millenium Development Goals Zambia campaign manager Dennis Nyati said the organisation expects to see a lot of money being allocated to the social sector and wants to see creation of employment among the youths. Nyati said he would want to see parliamentarians support President Levy Mwanawasa’s decision to increase mineral taxation because it would help in allocating more funds to the social sector.
No comments:
Post a Comment