Zambia resumes VAT refund payments to mining firms

Zambia has started paying Value-Added Tax (VAT) refunds again to mining companies aiming to put an end to a long running dispute, its mining minister has said,

Mining companies had claimed for months that they were owed more than 600 million dollars.

In VAT refunds and in February the government decided to relax the rule requiring exporters to produce import-export documents to claim the refunds.

“We are very committed to repaying. We have started to pay and that’s to clear the debacle,” Mines, Energy and Water Development Minister, Christopher Yaluma, said on the sidelines of the Zambia Mining Investment Forum.

Foreign companies operating mines in the world’s second biggest producer of copper include Glencore, First Quantum Barrick Gold Corp and Vedanta.

Vedanta’s Chief Executive, Tom Albanese, a delegate at the event, confirmed that the government had resumed some payments.

“They are beginning to pay back on invoices post February 2015 on a case-by-case basis,” he said.