Sales Tax Deadline Moved to September

Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe has for the second time deferred implementation of sale tax from 1st July, 2019 to 1st September, 2019, almost a month before presentation of the 2020 national budget.

And Mwanakatwe has indicated that had the sales tax been enforced from 1st July, 2019 government would have raked in over 7.1 billion kwacha in revenue collection.

Delivering a Ministerial statement in parliament this morning Mwanakatwe explained that the shift was procedural as she has to hold a workshop with lawmakers next Thursday.

She emphasized that this is the last postponement because consultations have been undertaken with almost all stakeholders across all the ten provinces and that the reception is positive.

She further defended the deferment saying it was the right procedure considering that parliamentarians who are lawmakers were not part of the national consultative meetings she undertook in all the 10 provinces.

Cabinet earlier this year, approved the publication and introduction of the Sales Tax Bill and the Income Tax Amendment Bill of 2019, to replace the Value added Tax.

The Sales Tax Bill of 2019 has a number of objectives, which include the introduction of a sales tax on the supply of goods by manufacturers, producers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers and the importers of goods into Zambia.