Zambia Revenue Authority Detects Discrepancies in Mining Audits

ZAMBIA Revenue Authority (#ZRA) says mining entities are audited on a regular basis and discrepancies have been detected in some of the financial records that have been assessed.

ZRA commissioner for domestic tax division Joseph Nonde said the audits in the mines are conducted on a risk profile basis, checking for specific queries that need to be addressed.

Mr Nonde said currently there are audits taking place in some of the large-scale mines and some discrepancies have been found.

“Audits are done on a regular basis in mining entities here in Zambia. The audits that we do are risk profile-based. We check for specifics that we need to address. Even as early as last month, we were auditing the mines,” he said in response to a question on when last ZRA conducted a mining audit and the outcomes.

This was during a taxpayer education workshop on capacity building to regulate the mining sector held recently.

Mr Nonde said some of the mines where inconsistencies have been found are holding discussions with the tax authority while others have made an appeal.

“The large mines are audited regularly and even as we speak, there are active audits that we are conducting. We are carrying out ordinary audits, where we verify records check on payments and declarations that they have made,” he said.

Mr Nonde said the tax authority also conducts specialised audits such as the transfer pricing audits. “For instance, we have been having quite a lengthy transfer pricing audit with one of the mining companies for quite a long time now, over a year, and there are certain findings that have been established and we are having a conversation with that mine.

Of course, we are constrained here to discuss what has come out. “But what is coming out of these audits is that on our part as ZRA, we do find discrepancies and we do engage the mining companies as is the case in audit cases,” he said.

Source: Zambia Daily Mail