Zambian Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe announced that the implementation date of the sales tax will be postponed from the previously announced April 1, 2019 to July 1, 2019.
She said that it is expected that in the first quarter of this year, preparations for the abolition of value-added tax and related work to pave the way for the implementation of sales tax will be completed.Because the nature of this process and task is complex and subtle, all the recommendations and concerns raised by stakeholders must be considered, and it takes more time to complete the process than previously planned.
In the ministerial statement, she told the parliament that significant progress has been made in the introduction of the sales tax. The new sales tax draft has produced results and will be reviewed and enacted in Parliament on April 2, 2019.The second readout review and finalization of the bill will be completed in June 2019. During this period, the bill will be further negotiated through interactions between the parliamentary committee and the Ministry of Finance and other economic actors.
She stressed that this is a new law, the government hopes to implement it thoroughly, and continue to work on a simplified non-refundable tax system to create a win-win situation for the government and enterprises.
National Assembly Speaker Patrick Matibini instructed Margaret Mwana Cartway to issue a ministerial statement to the nation to announce the progress of the sales tax bill.