By JOHN SAKALA
Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) President Enock Tembo says Chinese and South Africans are under paying tax.
Making highlits of PeP 2019 Alternative National Budget on The Independent Observer political public forum, Mr Tembo said the current Zambian tax administration in Zambia is not fair and it under taxes a few nationals.
He named the two favoured nationals as South Africans and Chinese who he claimed were being under taxed.
He said the reason the foreign entities are under taxed is because the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) lacks enough manpower to undertake physical tax inspections at taxpayer premises on a regular basis.
Mr Tembo a qualified Auditor and Tax expert called for need to increase the budgetary allocation to ZRA so that it can recruit more personnel to ensure adequate administration of the tax laws of the land.
“As a nation, our treasury is under collecting tax revenue compared to other countries in the region as measured by the Tax-revenue to GDP ratio which averages 17% for Zambia compared to averages of 26% for South Africa, 25% Botswana, 27% Namibia, 23% Zimbabwe among others.
“So essentially, we are failing to milk the cow as a nation, in terms of collecting the necessary tax that is due to the treasury from the economy, and instead of finding ways of increasing our Tax-revenue to GDP ratio and collect more tax to meet our expenditure obligations, we take the easy way out of borrowing,” he said.
Mr Tembo said the current Zambian Government tax regime over burdens employees who are vulnerable and the only ones seen as compliant.
“The current tax administration is biased against the few compliant taxpayers like employees through Pay As You Earn (PAYE).
“The PeP 2019 alternative national budget would focus on management of the domestic arrears, equity and fairness in tax administration and management of domestic debt,” he said.
He said the proposed changes in the PeP 2019 Alternative National Budget would be released on September 26, 2018.
