Government is owed a cumulative $206 million in unpaid mining
taxes and has since declared that it will soon be forfeiting claims held for
speculative purposes.
According to Mines and Mining Development Deputy Minister
Polite Kambamura, Government will this month deliberate on objections made
regarding the Exclusive Prospecting Orders (EPOs).
Speaking in Chinhoyi recently, Deputy Minister Kambamura
said the accumulative debt was as a result of bad attitude from mining
companies reluctant to support Government.
“The $206 million owed is a cumulative figure
compromising of unpaid ground rentals, unpaid special grants and some are
continuing to mine without paying those fees.
“We are contemplating forfeiting claims on such grounds of
non-payment because people are only complaining that things are tough, but on
inspection it’s only a paltry $100 per year with a mining resource, yet a
gramme [of gold] is being purchased at fairly reasonable price,” he said.
Deputy Minister Kambamura said Government would first give
debtors notices before forfeiting the claims.
“We are going to forfeit on those grounds just to try and
recover the money owed but will give people notices first to come forward and
pay on an agreed date.
“Failure to pay then, we will forfeit and follow legal
channels to recover those monies because of late even if a person owed $20 000,
Government would just forfeit without making a following up. This time we
forfeit and follow up the legal way,” he said.
On Government’s position regarding EPO’s, Deputy Minister
Kambamura said the issue will be tabled before the mining board this month.
“We have vast pieces of land throughout the provinces set
aside for exploration, as the procedure is a lot of those EPOs were objected.
The mining affairs board will be seating this month to consider all those
objections and everyone who objected will be called to come forward and explain
reasons for objections.
“Thereafter the body will make a decision whether to issue
such EPOs or not. Of late there have been some EPOs that were applied time back
and since then the owners of such did not come forward with any exploration
results or reports.
“All such cases are going to be considered under the ‘use
it or lose it’ principle going to be announced by Mines and Mining Development
Minister this month,” he said.
Deputy Minister Kambamura also castigated some mining firms
that were smuggling minerals outside the country in the disguise of
reprocessing them.
President Mnangagwa has declared mining will play a major
role in helping Zimbabwe achieve Middle-Income status by 2030 but areas of
smuggling, under invoicing exports and corruption need to be addressed immediately.
Herald
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