By PASSY HAACHIZO –
THE Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has called on the informal sector to continue supporting the Government by paying tax in a bid to formalise the sector.

. Fr Chiti

JCTR executive director Leonard Chiti said there was need for micro-business entities to continue paying tax to the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA).
Father Chiti said at the moment, it was difficult for many people to pay tax through ZRA because they had little knowledge about its importance.
“It is very challenging to try and formalise the private sector because it is too vast but we have been trying to educate the micro-business medium sectors to honour the affiliation,” Fr Chiti said.
He said the other alternative was for all sectors to join JCTR in the demand for a receipt campaign where consumers demanded a receipt for every service.
“We tend to appeal to people’s moral persuasion to say if you are in a business and you are making money you need to continue paying tax as well as the issuance of tax receipts, transactions and issues like that,” he said.
Fr Chiti attributed the problem of lack of paying tax to people’s failure to heed to Government’s call for them to stick to their market places.
He said consumers and entrepreneurs had to ensure they kept records without being persuaded or followed up.
“Previously governments had been trying to put these people conducting various businesses together in one place by building infrastructure and so on and so forth, but people still left those places in pursuit for customers,” he said.
Fr Chiti was disappointed when his entourage visited Nakadoli Market in Kitwe two weeks ago only to find the market empty as marketeers resorted to trading their merchandise from outside in an attempt to hook more customers.
For every controlled economy, every business entity is expected to pay tax through ZRA and get a receipt in turn so that the money could be used for developing the economy.
Fr Chiti said there was need for cooperation from all sectors of society if the current dilemma was to be gotten rid of once and for all.