‘Smugglers must be exposed’

As a country we are losing a lot of revenue through these evil activities, we are calling on Mr Zimba to expose them so that the nation knows people behind evil acts.

— John Kasongo.

ISLAMIC Supreme Council president Suzyo Zimba should not relent on exposing smugglers because they are depriving the country revenue, Change Life Zambia Board chairperson John Kasongo has said.

Smugglers, Mr Kasongo said, should not be tolerated because they had been robbing the country for a long time. He was reacting to Mr Zimba sentiments that he would expose smugglers that were allegedly conniving with Zambia Revenue Authority officials to evade tax. In an interview with the Daily Nation yesterday, Mr Zimba said he was ready to expose the smugglers’ activities and justify why they were after Mr Chanda’s blood. He said he was also ready to face the tax evaders in court because they were depriving the nation of the much-needed revenue. “I can tell you that the people who are posting audio recordings on social media just want to dent Mr Chanda’s image.

“They are being used by some smugglers who have now been fixed as they can’t evade tax anymore,” Mr Zimba said. “These unscrupulous individuals have been working with some senior ZRA officials to smuggle goods in the country even before Mr Chanda was appointed Commissioner General,” he said. According to Mr Zimba the smugglers would bring in oil and other products into the country but bribe some ZRA officials to purport that they were exporting the products when they were actually smuggling them into the country. And Mr Kasongo said in an interview yesterday, smugglers were enemies of the nation and needed to be punished.

He said Mr Zimba should ensure ZRA officials and smugglers were exposed so that government can take stiff action against them. He said allowing smugglers to avoid tax would impact negatively on the economy. Mr Kasongo said some sections of society were blaming government on the challenges the economy was facing when in fact officers mandated to help redeem the economy were engaged in illegal activities. “As a country we are losing a lot of revenue through these evil activities, we are calling on Mr Zimba to expose them so that the nation knows people behind evil acts. “These people are the ones making the economy to suffer. Let him expose them especially officers involved in such so that action can be taken,” Mr Kasongo said.