The discrepancies in tax returns and copper production attributes to leading commodity trader, Glencore AG Intl, in Zambia maybe attributed to slight delays in settling of taxes for financial years.
Mr Maxwell Mwale mines minister of Zambia said that while some players might have detected some discrepancies in submission of tax revenues and copper production by Glencore AG Intl’s Mopani Copper Mine in the copper rich country it could be a case of delayed settling of tax arrears for other financial years.
Mopani Copper Mine, one of the leading mining companies operating in Zambia, has been at the centre of controversy over some discrepancies concerning tax returns for copper mines and earned in Zambia in addition to the tax returns to Zambia Revenue Authority in which the country is said to have lost in excess of more than USD 175 million.
Mr Mwale during an interview on a local television channel argued that Mopani Copper Mine, a unit of Glencore AG International might have been misunderstood. In February this year, Glencore AG, through its Mopani Copper Unit in Zambia is alleged to have submitted glaring reports to the revenue agency in the production and revenue figures to the agency, known as ZRA for administration.
The auditors complained that the miner was uncooperative and that all audit queries for verification went unanswered, a move which raised concern among various interest groups, Action Aid of United Kingdom inclusive that sought the Zambian government’s intervention into the matter.
However, Mr Mwale stated that whenever auditors raised issues of concern for a company to explain wherever those issues arose, it was important that all matters were resolved amicably, arguing that Mopani Copper Mines, like Konkola Coppere Mines and First Quantum Minerals all paid taxes according to the law. He stated that it would have been likely that the payment could have been delayed for a particular financial years hence the argument maintaining that all big mining companies operating in Zambia paid their taxes as when due.
He said that for publicly listed companies, corporate governance was vital for their integrity and these were matters a company could not avoid attending to and ensure their reputation was upheld. Although Zambia Revenue Authority had a challenge to in auditing mining companies, it would not fail in its duties to ensure that all companies did not avoid remitting taxes to the national treasury.
Mr Mwale was concerned at the manner non governmental organizations which raised eyebrows and criticized the mining company and criticized Mopani based on uncompleted audit report.
Recently, Mopani Copper Mines, described the report as erroneous and incomplete arguing that the company was law abiding as evidenced by the more than USD 1 billion invested in Zambia, Africa’s largest copper producer which has created more than 10,0000 jobs and was meeting all taxes deemed to the company. Government contracted Norwegian auditors to verify reports that some mining companies were evading tax remittance to the national treasury.
Recently, the Zambia Extractive and Transparency Initiative expressed concern at the glaring figures presented to the revenue agency by some mining companies which it said raised a challenge.
Mr Mwale urged that players and other interest groups to be wary of some reports that might not depict the correct picture of what could be obtaining on the ground because of differences in accounting methods. Action Aid, among others, recently raised concern that Mopani Copper Mines, a unit of Glencore AG was evading paying taxes in Zambia and called for a review of the taxation system in Zambia to ensure compliance by all mining companies and ensure all revenue realized was collected by relevant wings.
It argued that Zambia may have probably lost more than USD 175 million in unremitted taxes through failure to comply with tax returns by some companies, a claim Mr Emmanuel Mutati CEO of Mopani Copper Mines recently denied in an advertised denial.
(Filed by Mr Kapembwa Sinkamba SteelGuru Correspondent Zambia)
