Principal Secretary (PS) in the
Phiri made the remarks in Karonga during the 2023 Karonga District Alternative Mining Indaba held at Karonga Boma on Tuesday.
NCA-DCA Malawi Country Joint Programme organized the indaba in conjunction with the
Phiri assured that his ministry will ensure that there are ample consultations across all stakeholders.
"To this end, we are now comfortable with a progressive tax regime that is being used as we negotiate with
The newly revised Mines and Minerals Act, which was recently passed and assented to by President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, provides for 0.45 percemt from gross revenue for use by the community under the Community Development Agreement.
Under this arrangement, the community has to indicate what they want to use the money for.
Phiri said he expects the communities take steps to ensure they benefit from such an arrangement.
"I am sure you will appreciate the need for such an approach and we hope that in coming up with such projects, due regard will be paid to matters of inclusion and due process followed in identifying areas of most need and maximum impact. Obviously, these issues cannot be resolved or agreed to overnight. They involve painstaking and slow, sometimes protracted negotiations. government has done all it can to assemble a comprehensive team of financial experts, tax gurus, people well versed in mining operations and resource estimates, international mineral pricing, and everyone else we need," he said.
Speaking earlier,
She warned that misunderstandings and conflicts would continue characterizing the extractive industry unless the Government of
"This has created a wide gap between the haves and have-nots. Transnational corporations have extracted and exploited natural resources across the country, leaving only massive degradation and poisoned water resources for the local communities," narrated Banda-Matsimbe.
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