Zimbabwe’s finance minister Tendai Biti said diamond smuggling will go ahead despite recent measures to have the country’s revenue collector supervise all mining operations to ensure transparency.
“It should help. I mean if the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) does its job properly it would help because at least now it will be known,” he was quoted by Daily News as saying said.
“But I think the people that are stealing our diamonds are so sophisticated that stealing will continue.”
Zimbabwe, according to the newspaper, had failed to gunner political will to ensure transparency in the diamond sector with Mines minister Obert Mpofu saying there cannot be full disclosure in the face of economic sanctions.
Biti said last week that diamond companies exported $456 million worth of produce between January and August this year and only remitted $46 million to the Treasury for the period to July and nothing in August.
The African Development Bank recently reported that mining firms in Zimbabwe were understating the true value of minerals extracted and this had prejudiced the state in tax revenue.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
