Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
State House has refuted allegations that it instructed the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) to close down the Post Newspaper on Friday last week.
The President’s Special Aide for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda says the allegations are preposterous and outrageous in the extreme.
Mr. Chanda says ZRA has however informed State House that its action to raid the newspaper followed a court order authorizing it to collect colossal outstanding taxes due to the treasury.
He says President Lungu was also informed by Deputy Finance Minister Christopher Mvunga that the ZRA’s raid at the newspaper company was a routine operation as enshrined in the ZRA mandate to collect taxes for the treasury.
Amos Chanda
Mr. Chanda says this means that regardless of whether who was owing taxes was an individual or Newspaper Company there was no exception.
He states that President Lungu therefore finds it unreasonable that a debt between the Post Newspaper and ZRA has been misrepresented as an act of punishment from him.
Mr. Chanda says the President is encouraging the Post newspaper to emulate other media houses that pay taxes whenever the ZRA tendered a huge tax bill against them with without dragging innocent people into their debt.
Mr. Chanda says the Zambia Daily Mail, Times of Zambia and Daily Nation are some of the media houses that negotiate with the ZRA and pay their debt quietly.
He was speaking to journalists this afternoon at State House.
And Mr. Chanda disclosed that President Lungu has welcomed Atlas Mara’s acquisition of Finance Bank Zambia Limited.
He says the President is delighted that Atlas Mara has continued to show confidence in Zambia’s banking sector.
Meanwhile Mr. Chanda has also disclosed that that a group of people came to see president Lungu proposing that he dismisses Finance Minister Alexander Chanda or Information Minister Chishimba Kambwili and put Miles Sampa.