Review mines tax regime, urged M’membe
By Mast Reporter
SOCIALIST Party (SP) 2026 presidential candidate Dr Fred M’membe has urged the United Party for National Development (UPND) to review its tax regime on mines and minerals saying Zambians are losing huge sums of money in unfair taxes.
Dr M’membe said it was not fair for the country to continue losing money through unfair taxes and giving out the country’s mines to foreign transnational mining corporations for nothing.
He said the best President Hakainde Hichilema could do for Zambia was to revisit mining concessions so that Zambians could benefit locals instead of leaving the situation as it was.
“We have on several occasions advised Mr Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND government on the urgent need for them to pay a lot of attention to the taxation of our mines. Clearly, we are losing out so much, and it’s sad to watch. We definitely need to get our act together and get fair taxes from our minerals,” Dr M’membe said.
He said Hichilema should realise that the multinational mining firms were only interested in the Zambian mining sector because they were making huge profits to keep them competitive.
It would be prudent for government to reconsider tax waivers in order to attract a strong economy through the inflows of foreign currencies.
“All these mining firms like Anglo American, Anglovaal, Glencore, Vedanta [Resources] and other mining corporations are interested in our minerals because there are huge profits to be made now and in the future. Yet when we advise Mr Hichilema and his league to revisit the mining concessions and tax waivers to improve dollar inflows to the treasury and the economy at large, they never take our advice or act on it. They know it all and continue to pursue impractical and irresponsible policies,” Dr M’membe said.
He urged Hichilema to be realistic with the UPND policies which had failed the aspirations of the people of Zambia.
The current government’s policies on mining did not support local investments in order to create jobs and human resource development.
“Do you know that US$2 billion of tax waivers per annum can employ three million farm workers? This is the reality on the issue of tax incentives. Do you also know that it takes 180 pounds of copper to make a Tesla or other electric vehicle? This is five times the amount of copper needed to make a combustion engine motor vehicle. And it takes 450 pounds of copper to build a normal house, once you include electric appliances, wiring and fixtures. If you put solar panels on it that will take another 100 to 150 pounds of copper wiring. A solar farm used to generate energy requires five times the copper it takes for an equivalent natural, coal or nuclear power plant,” Dr M’membe said.
