STOP ILLEGAL JUNTA

INVESTIGATIVE wings of the government, the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA), Lusaka City Council, the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Consumer Protection and Competition Commission (CPCC) and other State agencies must immediately sniff out the people behind the junta scam.

It is alarming that Government is losing billions of Kwacha through unpaid taxes because some crooks running organised crime syndicates are using labels of legal manufacturers to sell illegally blended spirits in pocket-size bottles commonly known as junta.

The illegal blenders are suspected to be using illegally imported ethanol to flood the market with cheap but potentially dangerous whisky, brandy and other spirits.

The companies and individuals involved in this deadly scam should be smoked out and prosecuted. They are a danger to the nation.

Besides endangering the health and lives of consumers, mostly youths, the unregulated junta, blended in secret plants including backyards and garages, has a devastating impact on the economy.

It is exacting a heavy cost on the government through the treatment of abusers who develop health complications and have to be treated at public clinics and hospitals using tax payers’ money.

This is costing the nation billions of Kwacha which Government, through ZRA, is expected to collect through taxes and channel to public services and development programmes.

The perpetrators of this scourge do not pay taxes but launder their illicit earnings by investing them in legitimate businesses while they continue raking in more billions through the distribution of the junta.

It should not be too difficult for the government agencies to crack open this crime ring.

Most of the ethanol that serves as raw material comes through Southern and Western provinces.

The smugglers’ favourite routes are Sesheke-Katima Mulilo-Namibia road and Chirundu border.

Huge quantities of the liquid are being smuggled into the country through Namibia and Zimbabwe, which the smugglers have for some time now been using as transit countries.

It is no wonder that the market is choking with bottles of junta. They are everywhere.

Because of the low price at which the bottles are sold – between K3 and K5 – youths have unfettered access to the liquor, whose alcohol content is as high as 75 percent.

This is unfair to the owners of the brands, whose business is facing stiff competition from the illegal blenders.

One of the victims is Duncan Gilbey and Matheson, a Lusaka-based company.

Production supervisor Chipasha Ngulukila says the illegal manufacturers have flooded the market with cheap spirits using the company’s packaging.

Mr Ngulukila said his company was working in line with the law of the country and its spirits were approved by the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS).

Some Lusaka residents have complained that the companies producing fake blended spirits must be identified and punished because the liquor is causing harm to both the youth and the old.

Ms Brenda Kangwa alleges that the illicit alcoholic drink is still being sold on the market, but just branded in different bottles carrying the labels of legitimate manufacturers.

She suspected Duncan Gilbey and Matheson of being the source.

But Mr Ngulukila explained that the company produced its spirits from pure grade ethanol which was imported legally and approved by ZABS.

He said its ethanol was subjected to thorough and approved distillation processes for alcoholic beverages, including spirits.

“Our company has been in existence since 1966 and is Zambia’s number one leading producers of spirits approved by the ZABS,” he said.

There is need for the government to crack down on these illegal blenders to protect the country’s economy as well as the legitimate producers whose businesses are suffering from unfair competition.

Government needs the billions of Kwacha that the scammers are withholding from ZRA through their illegal business.