Pvt sector threatens to stop paying taxes
As pressure continues to mount on President Joyce Banda to act on looting of public resources, the private sector has warned that it would stop paying taxes until the system is cleaned.
Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) chief executive Chancellor Kaferapanjira said yesterday the donor community should also stop funding government because it could refuse to be accountable to the taxpayers based on external support.
“With all the chaos and looting taking place at Capital Hill with impunity, the main funders of government coffers, the private sector, are considering the possibility of suspending payment of taxes until it is sure that the money will be used for the right activities,” said Kaferapanjira.
He said the move to consider suspending payment of taxes would be in “protest against public financial mismanagement.”
He said: “What is even more disturbing to the private sector is the fact that leadership seems not to be eager to resolve the problem, which may suggest a deliberate attempt to put such serious issues under the carpet.”
Kaferapanjira said it was sad to expect government ministries such as Ministry of Health, Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security or Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to operate on thin budgets they are currently receiving.
“In the end, the private sector is not getting the services it should get from such ministries. At the same time the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) is always over-collecting overall yet the failure of systems in the Ministry of Finance is enriching individuals,” he said.
“That is why the private sector is thinking of the possibility of a move in which it would deposit tax money in a suspense account where government cannot access until it cleans its house,” said the MCCCI boss.
The call follows a 30 days ultimatum, which the grand civil society coalition has given the Banda administration to act or they will mobilise Malawians to stop paying taxes.
Sounds like a good idea but can our cowardice be overcomed to make this a reality? I dont know.
I support the idea of stopping paying taxes,because some are busy using the taxes flying allover the world and some busy looting at Capitol Hill.Mbaya ndarama zithu zikutipweteka.
What we need is a vote of no confidence for the current govt, if thats not possible we need something like the Arab Spring revolution to kick this govt out of power. Stopping paying taxes is a ridiculous idea becoz the sufferers will not be the ones running govt now, it will be the local poor masses who rely on govt health centres etc. Stopping paying taxes will just make the already bad situation to get even worse. Those advocating this idea should sit down and think again becoz it is not only a stupid ideal but also a dangerous one as well becoz many lives will be lost in hospitals.
The stupid idea is to continue paying taxes when actually the money is not getting to the poor. You seem not to understand .Perhaps you are one of the looters and you want to still have your cake. Currently lives are being lost in Malawian Hospitals of curable diseases because of the careless government that is on autopilot. Sometimes you have to let things get worse so that sense is put into the Macopolo President of Malawi. Honestly in developed countries by now the Minister of Finance should have resigned or pushed out, But for us we want to pretend that he is innocent until proven guilty. But he has failed to manage the country’s purse with distinction. Shame on you.
I stand by what I said above that to stop paying tax is indeed a stupid ideal. You will also be interested to know that the idea is not practical, for instance taxes are deducted from employee wages by the employer way before employees receive their wages so in short you should count out all employees from this stupid idea.
Yes- a good start and next- sign up!
http://www.change.org/petitions/he-joyce-banda-act-now-to-end-corruption-and-fraud-in-malawi-government
My dear Malawians it is real a very sad to learn of such a looting of huge of money from our already poor country, what do these people real think? Malawians be informed, Malawi as a country has no politicians but opportunists, people who have no political principals, hence when one party falls out of fortune no one wants to stand still but move to the other so called ruling party of the time. worse still claiming that my people have told me,what do you people know about the principals of the new party u are joining.
Why because they are there to fill their tomes, not to save the people who elected them. Lets be careful with such type of so called politicians. A real politician stand for his party and the principals of the Party. He or She stands and observe the mistakes the running Gov. is making and try to find ways and means to amend such mistakes once the Party takes the Gov. again. Lets the simple example: When Our late President passed on: We had a very wonderful exodus from the origin Party to a Party none of them knew its principals. Then one asked one self were these people real royal to their Party. No the thing was what we are witnessing to day to have chance to be able to plunder. All the same. Chamwini chimalira mwini wake. Choona chidzakhala choona mpaka muyaya.
Chilungamo chigwire ntchito.
This is the case when a republic is run by ‘mercenary politicians’ the entire cabinet is comprised of these pretenders. Public funds will continue to disappear and no one will be brought to book because the our President and politicians are complicit in these ghetto dealings. They believe that they have found their sacrificial lambs in these accounts assistants.
I agree with Chancellor Kaferapanjira that citizens, corporations and donors cannot continue to finance a government this corrupt. But as you will see donors will not abandon their new African show case JB. Some citizens including bogus pastors will applaud the token efforts by government and pardon JB and her administration. Eventually Malawians will tire and forget the matter.
Meanwhile this is all working out well for JB. It is an effective distraction of the public from all the voter registration fraud going on in Malawi. Anyone who can count from 1 to 10 can see that the number of registered voters in the Yao Belt does not tally with official demographic records for the regions. Over-registration and under-registration tactics are underway.