We Need Greater Transparency Over Tax Payments

A complaint over tax payments by a Glencore subsidiary could prompt the Zambian government to undertake an audit of all mining companies to assess how much tax they owe

The contrast between the poverty of most people in Zambia and the natural riches of our country was highlighted this week in an incident that is highly embarrassing for one of the companies profiting from our mineral wealth.

The company – Swiss commodities giant Glencore – has just announced its intention to launch itself on to the London Stock Exchange.

So it will have been less than happy about the timing of the formal complaint which my organisation, the Centre for Trade Policy and Development, and four others filed last week with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The complaint is about the behaviour of a mining company, Mopani Copper Mines (MCM), which is largely owned by a Glencore subsidiary and which operates in Zambia’s copperbelt, near our northern border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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