Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
CSPR Eastern Province Coordinator Maxson Nkhoma
The Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) in Eastern Province has tipped the PF Government to learn from previous governments the reason why they did not implement withholding tax on rentals law despite its existence since 1992 than implementing it hurriedly.
CSPR Eastern Province Coordinator Maxson Nkhoma says the move taken by the Government has potential to further increase the cost of living which is unreasonably very high.
Mr. Nkhoma says as any increment in tax is usually passed to the end user hence the implementation and enforcement of the withholding tax on rentals is likely to bring about increases in rentals for majority Zambians who leave in rented houses.
He says his organization is aware that Government is currently under pressure to increase its local revenue collection base following changes made to the mineral royalty tax regime which will see government lose about K2.5 Billion in taxes which were supposed to be collected from mining companies operating in the Country.
Mr. Nkhoma says he is disappointed that the Government wants to punish innocent citizens by enforcing the implementation of the withholding tax law on rentals to compensate on its failure to collect taxes from mining companies.
He notes that the PF government campaigned on a pro-poor platform as witnessed by their slogan “putting more money in People’s Pockets, but the people are being subjected to contrary things from what they were promised.
Mr. Nkhoma has since appealed to the Government through the Ministry of Finance to rescind its decision of enforcing the implementation of this law.