By MAIMBOLWA MULIKELELA –
THE Zambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI) has appealed to the Government to reduce corporate tax next year in view of the country’s economic challenges.
ZACCI says this should be taken as a special measure to lower the cost of doing business, especially that the 2016 Budget had been passed.
ZACCI president Geoffrey Sakulanda said considering that the tax receipts from the mining companies would reduce significantly, it was important for Government to lower the value of corporate tax.
Mr Sakulanda said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that reducing corporate tax would improve compliance levels among business entities as well as revenue collection.
He said the value of corporate tax was still high and it was, therefore, cardinal for the Government to consider lowering the tax.
“We keep focusing on the value of corporate tax which is still high. We think that, to stimulate the economy especially in view of the economic challenges we are going through right now, where the cost of fuel and energy is going up, we think it’s time we start lowering tax,” he said.
Mr Sakulanda said having lower taxes would encourage more companies to pay, hence an increase in revenue collection.
“Tax receipts from mining companies are not going to be much, and in order to boost the revenue base, there is need to put in place special measures whether within or outside the Budget in order to reduce the cost of tax.
“We need to go into the informal sector and make it contribute its due share to revenue and broaden the tax base so that more people can be captured to improve Government revenue,” he said.
Mr Sakulanda explained that ZACCI had made submissions to the 2016 Budget to make the Government lower corporate tax which is currently at 35 per cent.