By CHIPEMA SAKAIMBO –

Action Aid Zambia (AAZ) has urged the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) to ensure that The Post Newspaper pays all the tax arrears it owes in full before it can be re-opened.
Country director Nalucha Nganga said her organisation believed that local and foreign companies should pay their fair share of taxes as long as they were operating in Zambia.
“AAZ like many other stakeholders in the country have watched with keen interest the developments surrounding the ZRA statements and actions regarding The Post Newspapers tax affairs and tax dispute.
To be clear we believe that The Post Newspapers should pay taxes and any tax arrears that they may owe to ZRA just like any tax payer,” said Ms Nganga.
She noted that it was necessary that the Zambian government raised the tax revenue in a progressive manner by ensuring that those who earned more income and made profits paid a proportionately higher amount of taxes than those who earned less.
And Ms Nganga explained that it was important that the tax revenues were redistributed and spent in those areas and activities that would make the most impact on the poorest of Zambians such as rural areas to provide quality public health, education and water and sanitation services that can be accessed by all.
In a statement Ms Nanga called on ZRA to also act on all the other cases of possible tax evasion and avoidance or indebtedness by multinational companies (MNCs) with the same exuberance they have shown in the case of The Post Newspaper.
Ms Nganga was, however, concerned with the capacity challenges faced by ZRA that would hamper their efficient tax collection as it relates the MNCs and the national businesses.
She said ZRA should effectively come up with a system in tax collection which would compel institutions especially multinational companies to comply with paying their taxes that would fund social sectors