The Sunday Mail
Zambia’s mines minister plans to present a revised minerals law to lawmakers by the end of the year, even after parliament was adjourned following the death of President Michael Sata.
“I’m pushing, that is my deadline,” Christopher Yaluma said by phone on Friday from Lusaka, the capital of Africa’s second-biggest copper producer.
Yaluma missed an earlier target of presenting the bill to legislators during the previous parliamentary session because of changes the Justice Ministry suggested to legal wording. The mines ministry has “cleaned up” the document, he said.
Companies including Glencore Plc and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. have operations in the country. The revised mining law will provide for greater involvement by Zambians in the industry, Yaluma said in April, without giving further details.
Parliament was adjourned on October 29 until further notice after Sata died in a hospital in London.
The National Assembly will resume sittings on November 12, a day after Sata’s burial, state-owned Zambia National Broadcasting Corp. radio reported on Friday.
During the session, lawmakers will debate the 2015 budget proposed on October 10. Parliament may have to extend working hours and add extra days to complete its work for the year, Yaluma said.
Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda’s budget proposes higher royalties for mining companies and the removal of corporate tax. The government owes copper producers more than $600 million in value-added tax refunds it withheld after officials said companies failed to comply with rules requiring them to provide import documents from the countries their products end up in.
The firms say it’s impossible to provide that information. – Bloomberg.
