Too many taxes in Zambia over burden people, business

Dear Editor, ZAMBIA Revenue Authority (ZRA) is a government quasi institution mandated to collect taxes from taxpayers every month.

It is one thing to collect taxes from taxpayers and another to overburden them as the case is at the moment.

Our country, comparably, has too many taxes imposed on payers in the Southern African region.

Many entrepreneurs are facing challenges to make profits owing to high competition on the market for instance. Worse yet, they have to pay different forms of taxes.

These taxes include turnover tax, value added tax (VAT), and pay as you earn (PAYE), withholding tax among other forms of taxes.

I recall vividly that President Michael Chilufya Sata (now late-MHSRIEP) bemoaned high taxes in Zambia which impacted negatively on people's lives.

His campaign was premised on lowering taxes and more money in people's pockets.

This is no longer the case under the current regime.

The government through ZRA has just introduced underground water and borehole tax whose motive is still unclear.

The tax will be imposed on anyone owning a borehole or is intending to drill one.

If the above is not bad enough, the government is in the process of taxing people in the informal sector preferably marketeers. This doesn't augur well as a matter of fact.

All said and done, taxpayers are already overburdened with high taxes. There is need to stop introducing more taxes which affect many taxpayers.

ELEMIYA PHIRI Lusaka