VICE-PRESIDENT Guy Scott says Government has no immediate plans to increase mining taxes but that it expects China Non-Ferrous Corporation Africa (NFCA) Chambishi mine to pay its dues and respect workers.
And Dr Scott has warned that the authorities will not compromise on environmental protection and resettlement of families who will be displaced by NFCA’s planned development of the US$832 million South East Ore Body project.
Speaking shortly before touring NFCA mine in Chambishi yesterday, Dr Scott said the Patriotic Front (PF) Government expects NFCA to pay taxes to enable it to build social infrastructure including roads, hospitals and schools.
“We expect the company to pay tax. In China, when you don’t pay tax, they get cross with you and the PF Government will also get cross with you if you don’t honour this obligation. We are not talking about increasing taxes but we want you to pay what is due to Government,” Dr Scott said.
He also said the PF Government expects workers to benefit from the profits which the mining company is making, in terms of wages.
“I want everyone to work in harmony. Harmony is a good Chinese concept. Management has to respect the rights of workers and follow standard procedure when resolving disputes because workers are human beings who must be respected. But also, we don’t approve stealing by workers,” Dr Scott said.
Dr Scott also warned that Government will not compromise on environmental protection and the resettlement of families who will be affected by NFCA’s development of the South East Ore Body project.
This was after NFCA Chambishi mine deputy chief executive officer Zhou Liang raised concerns that the Zambia Environmental Management Authority is delaying to approve the development of the environmental impact assessment for the project because Hybrid Poultry Farm is concerned that this will negatively affect its business.
Dr Scott said he will soon convene a meeting with all the parties involved to chart the way forward.
“It is clear that I have to convene a meeting with all interest groups. We will not compromise on environmental issues and the resettlement of residents. If you are trying to convince me in the absence of other parties, it will not work,” Dr Scott said.
NFCA chairman Tao Xinhu, who spoke through an interpreter, said NFCA will invest over US$800 million in the ore project which will create 5,000 jobs.
“This project will further strengthen relations between Zambia and China and enhance Zambia’s development,” Mr Tao said.
And Mr Zhou said the NFCA will spend US$260,000 to resettle the families which will be displaced by the project in Mukulumpe and Twashuka areas. NFCA has also donated an ambulance to Kalulushi hospital, an 80 kilowatt generator and a motor bike to Chambishi clinic, all valued at K465 million.
Dr Scott was accompanied by Minister of Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Yamfwa Mukanga, Copperbelt Minister Davies Mwila and Deputy Minister of Mines Richard Musukwa.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Scott you are whiteman why go back to your vomit
what the heck do you mean by this?!!!!!!!
Keep your bigoted remarks to yourself.
YOU ARE NOT MAN OF THE PEOPLE IF YOU ARE SUCH A RACIST CRAP
Uli ka choncholi chi colour, I can tell by your bloken engrish
Increase taxes or MMD bounces back,I voted for you ,but the last town i was i lusaka ,the city looks pathetic and sticks.How can you allow a capital city to be like that?
The perils of leadership dictates that citizens deserve moral leadership and where taken for fools, the same people have the right to take on what they have authenticated as useless and treacherous to the common good. These dry bones have lamentably failed to inspire and steer the country to higher heights. Other than daily ranting vacuously creating strife and despondency in the nation, they deserve no space to ruin our country further. Zambia is the only country we have and she is dear to the heart of every patriot. Never seen this kind of flippancy in human history. You mean a party cannot have rational actors in its ranks?
See this one, “Sata was an early advocate of a substantial windfall tax on the copper miners, flushing with revenues from an exponential increase in global prices till now, and of a far firmer royalties regime. But as soon as he was risked with a shoe string minority government power he u-turned against his own rhetorical campaign of years. He has treacherously believed Zambians have been fooled and done with. He went into comatose on all issues he campaigned on, dropping the windfall tax entirely. His position on Chinese investment had also metamorphosed from outright hostility into a token insistence on abiding by Zambian law. Read his speech at Harvard on his anti China lethargy when he worked for Taiwan.
More and more Zambians especially the increasingly hopeless youths in their land of plenty are adversely disillusioned by the consistent failure of conventional politics to deliver a better living standard. The call for a Zambia they deserve is not only crystallizing some critical mass but justifying the quest for people power and people’s will.
collect the 6p.c mineral tax,improve the labour laws engage the investors more often,equip zra,then we wil see improvements.m dissapointed wth bob sichinga the chap is a theoretician.ba pf put your act together,the ball is yours!
BECAUSE HE CALLED FOR WINDFALL TAX, HE HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE MoMs
Windfall tax will be revisited – Simuusa
THE windfall tax will be revisited, says new mines minister Wylbur Simuusa. In an interview, Simuusa, who was one of the major proponents of the windfall tax during the last parliamentary session, said the PF government would meet mine owners to deliberate on the windfall tax.
FLIPPANTS ARE A DANGER TO A NATION
Bob Sichinga says it is imperative that the new government re-introduces windfall tax so that all Zambians benefit from the wealth in the mining sector.
Mr Sichinga says the new government should also ensure that investors do not externalize all the profits they make in the sector but use the money for development.
He says the new administration should remain committed to broadening the tax base and indentify different social groups and determine how much tax each group can pay according to their earnings.
Mining company’s usually give options to govts to chose; Windfall Tax or kickbacks.
Guys Honestly we should stop trying to continuously milk this copper cow. After all the industry is only worth US$10Billion if my figures are correct at Zambia producing per year 1million tones of copper by $10,000 a tonne. They are other industries we can concentrate on. Educate guys in Zed to develop software, Beef/sheep/agric production, Manufacturing, Services based industries, investing in Foreign countries so the gov can earn profits bring them back to Zed. Wake up guys copper is just one of the cows we can milk but there are other multibillion dollar industries we can invest in. Lets start looking in all Areas not just one. And don’t wait for foreign investment I’m sure we can do it ourselves we just encouragement.
@yamba yamba
whitemen arent careless liars as what we are witnessing with this govt. They have turned 360 on all promises
@ Pa Zed. You are spot on. In a sense the copper industry is a major source of distraction for our great country. And indeed your views are consistent with the academic literature on the “resource curse” whereby countries that are endowed with natural resources focus so much on their extraction and expected benefits to the detriment of other and perhaps more sustainable endeavours….
I am disappointed on this one. That is all I can say.
Hope you are saying no tax increament but you increase share holding in these mines to 30 or 35 as you said. That will be understood.Otherwise it is a very disappointing discission.
Pf goverment has taken Zambian voters for a ride.its a shame that PF have failed to full fill any of pre election promises.Im sure reality has downed on PF fools that its not a easy thing to rule – its easier said then done.
What a contradiction – PF for you
Our dummy veep, muzinkala chabe! You and your vuvuzela Post made alot of noise last year regarding re-introduction of windfall taxes. Now you’re back peddling. The foolish voters who ushered you in deserve every bit of this circus! Enjoy your 5yrs (assuming King Cobby remains fit) but you’ll be in for a rude shock come 2016!
No wonder! As far as Guy Scott is concerned, it is his birth-right to serve his UK, as he is strategically placed in government to protect all British and foreign investors in this country. This is a tragedy of of ignoring indigenous tallent to appoint a genetically fully expressed British citizen. Bad lack to Zambia under Sata.
The inconsistency on national issues by Mr Sata’s regime hsa continued to worry Zambians genuinely fearing where we shall be in a year’s period. The more Zambians think about the failures in honouring what PF promised to implement once in power before elections, the more Zambians realised how foolish Mr Sata and his team can make Zambians look easy to be fooled. PF govt has changed from the laguage of ruling to picking fights from all angles of the national wellbeing in Zambia. Truth is, underestimation to what what it takes to rule than in opposition where careless statements falls on the govt to rebuff it. There is more to govern than empty rhetorical sayings that are proving hard to meet. This defines the legacy to be left behind by PF and Mr Sata long after they are gone.
Paranoia :) Tax issue aside we cannot forget the importance of not selling out completely. Glad to know it is in pipelines for higher mandatory percentage to go to Zambia wherever there is foreign investment. Talking aside are there people here aside from the two above who have positive potential solutions. Quit turning into a society of whiners. You clearly have intelligence which is misplaced. That’s how we got here. Would love to see more than vitriol out of Zambians. Do you not tire of repeating yourselves? Rhetorical question. Sigh.
I have said it once and will say it again, am happier in Diaspora than put up with this shit government.
19@Pa Zed. The worth of the mining industry is calculated using the insitu mineable reserves and not the production rate. Using the instu reserves, the mining indusry is probably worth severa times more than your 10 billion USD.
But you tax sales not potential sales. It not what a company is worth when it comes to tax its its sales. And we can only tax the mining sector so much. Tax it too much and it stops being profited and not worth investing in.
Zambia’s biggest resource is its people (not copper) If we’re to think of resource curse, it appears that our curse is not copper but our people.You see,the zambian always expects his environment to fit him taste rather than him changing to fit his environment.How do you explain the domination of the zambian by foreign entities like shoprite,MTN,kobil and glencore? Change the zambian mindset first and taxes and all else will fall in place
In other words government has no plans and lied to you Zambians.
To make matters worse on the u-turn on windfall taxes,PF wants only Chinese mines to pay taxes,by implication.How about the Canadian and Austrian owned mines?CC III has been vindicated in only 60 months of PF nightmares
@Pa Zed . We need that milk for baking Manufacturing and agricultural industries cakes.
Govt has no plans to increase mining taxes and stakes… and Simuusa was removed from mines ministry
zambian People must benefit from its mineral wealth as you said during the campaign… LOL
It’s the beginning of disillusionment !
SHUT UP Foolish IMPOSTORS !!
i guess its true that in the village of the blind the one eyed man was king. now lets say MCS is king in a village named zambia.
DONCHI KUBEBA! Where is the winfall TAX? We shall need to be very careful next time we vote
Twapenga tata lesa isabwangu!!!
up to now we had thieves and crooks
Now foolish IMPOSTORS run Zambia
poor Zed…!!
Where is the WINDFALL TAX we were promised? PF have one done one important thing, GETTING BACK ZAMTEL
u r waitin 4 elections 2 b near,we already knw the mmd strategy mwanya bamambala as R B said.
PF is the only honest and straight party we ever had in zambia.
They told us that they are getting into power by lies (Donchi kubeba).
I don’t know why pipo are asking for campaign promise.
@Pazed u a spot on. Its the mindset which needs to be changed. We need to look into other sectors to steer this economy to greater heights. Chi Senior Citizen U a frustrated grumpy chap! why a U always critising without offering a solution even where U a in Diaspora they propagate good tenets when it comes to offering criticism. If U cant do this join yo fellow haters ku ZWD Shaaaa!
Is this government saying it does not need the taxes to benefit its people to build schools, roads infrastructure, procure medicines for hospitals and other social services? Why don’t they want to collect windfall tax when it will make a difference to the national fiscus?? It illogical and foolish not to take it? Whose whims are they pandering to???
Mathuvi ya boma, where are going to find money to fince free medical services if ou do not increase tax from indusries like the mines? Min you yu have lowered tax on PAYE. YOU THINK YOU WILL EARN ENUOGH BACKS FROM THE 6 PCNT. Ndiwe Muzungu wabelela , i think you ended in grade 7 also like michael Chlufyanya
Mathuvi ya boma, where are going to find money to fince free medical services if ou do not increase tax from indusries like mines. Ndiwe Muzungu wabelela , i think you ended in grade 7 also like michael Chlufyanya
I know alot about the promises pf made during the election campaigns, can someone remind me what mmd was promising (if any at all). Plz don’t remind me that they are thieves ( i seem to have that impression although no proof).
It is very irritating for MMD cadres to try and use the non-collection of mining taxes by the PF, as a reason to vote the MMD back in.
We all know that the MMD would just collect bribes from the mines and continue this crime. Even today they are in the newspapers defending removing the Abuse of Office clause of the ACC Act.
However, this will not do. The PF must start collecting taxes from the mines. 45% of children are stunted by malnutrition. That is an atrocity that overrules all other considerations. It could easily be remedied by using mining taxes to build infrastructure, like dams, and control annual flooding, as well as provide irrigation for more than the present 3% of arable land.
The mines must contribute $1.4 billion to the State, every year, or ‘their’ mines must be nationalised.
Collect the money, invest it wisely, and the nation will develop.
I want to know from the PF what their exact standpoint is on the mines, WHY they refuse to collect the Windfall Tax.
What happens? Are they taken out to a backyard and told – you’ll be shot if you collect taxes from the mines?
What is the process? I want to know.
Because CLEARLY, THIS IS NOT WORKING. Allowing the mines contribution to be limited to taxation is not working. They smuggle, they avoid and evade taxes, and they mess with elected officials to the point of idiocy.
I say nationalize them all. They can’t be relied on to even pay taxes on OUR MINERALS, so take them back.