ESTHER MSETEKA, Lusaka
Daily Mail
ZAMBIA needs to urgently establish a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) for minerals and metal to ensure future generations benefit from natural resources even after they are depleted.
Tax Justice Network-Africa (TJN-A) notes that the SWF, which is a State-owned pool of money that is invested in various financial assets, will protect local resources and further help stabilise the economy through diversification.
In the 2015 national budget, Government announced that it had allocated K100 million for the establishment of the SWF. However, the fund was put on hold owing to economic challenges that grappled Zambia and other commodity-driven economies.
In the case of Zambia, the SWF was aimed at cushioning the impact in an event where copper prices slumped.
“Ghana and Tanzania have SWFs for oil and gas sector but none for minerals. The rationale for the oil and gas sector is equally applicable to the minerals. There is, therefore, a need for these countries, including Zambia to establish a fund for key minerals and metals,” it says.
TJN-A also says Zambia needs to tighten its policy and legislations to ensure that the rent distribution system allocates parts of mineral revenue to the communities near mining operations.
This can be done through the adoption of the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) to promote mineral resource-based development and structural transformation.
AMV is a pathway formulated by African nations themselves that puts the continent’s long term and broad development objectives at the heart of all policy making concerned with mineral extraction.
As a strategy, TJN-A feels that the AMV will go beyond improving mineral regimes as a separate unit to establish how the sectors can better contribute to local, national and regional economic development.
“The reform agenda highlights the critical importance and value of mineral taxes for development and improving fiscal benefits of mining.
“It is within this context that TJN-A undertook a three countries and Regional Economic Community (RECs) study to measure progress towards domesticating the AMV,” it says.
In recent years, the fiscal systems in Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia have all remarkably changed.
The network notes that there has also been change in revenue management framework to a lesser extent in the three countries.
Daily Mail
ZAMBIA needs to urgently establish a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) for minerals and metal to ensure future generations benefit from natural resources even after they are depleted.
Tax Justice Network-Africa (TJN-A) notes that the SWF, which is a State-owned pool of money that is invested in various financial assets, will protect local resources and further help stabilise the economy through diversification.
In the 2015 national budget, Government announced that it had allocated K100 million for the establishment of the SWF. However, the fund was put on hold owing to economic challenges that grappled Zambia and other commodity-driven economies.
In the case of Zambia, the SWF was aimed at cushioning the impact in an event where copper prices slumped.
“Ghana and Tanzania have SWFs for oil and gas sector but none for minerals. The rationale for the oil and gas sector is equally applicable to the minerals. There is, therefore, a need for these countries, including Zambia to establish a fund for key minerals and metals,” it says.
TJN-A also says Zambia needs to tighten its policy and legislations to ensure that the rent distribution system allocates parts of mineral revenue to the communities near mining operations.
This can be done through the adoption of the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) to promote mineral resource-based development and structural transformation.
AMV is a pathway formulated by African nations themselves that puts the continent’s long term and broad development objectives at the heart of all policy making concerned with mineral extraction.
As a strategy, TJN-A feels that the AMV will go beyond improving mineral regimes as a separate unit to establish how the sectors can better contribute to local, national and regional economic development.
“The reform agenda highlights the critical importance and value of mineral taxes for development and improving fiscal benefits of mining.
“It is within this context that TJN-A undertook a three countries and Regional Economic Community (RECs) study to measure progress towards domesticating the AMV,” it says.
In recent years, the fiscal systems in Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia have all remarkably changed.
The network notes that there has also been change in revenue management framework to a lesser extent in the three countries.
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