Conflicting reports emerge on Zim’s diamond income

via Conflicting reports emerge on Zim’s diamond income – Southern Eye 26 November 2013

Has the government of Zimbabwe been receiving the tax money that is supposed to be remitted to it by the various diamond companies operating within its territory? Reports from different sources give conflicting answers to this question.

While the government of Zimbabwe insists that it is not receiving the moneys due to it, South Africa’s Independent Online Business Report claims that classified Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KP) documents reveal that significant funds are entering the country’s coffers.

Just two weeks ago, Zimbabwe’s Finance ministry announced that even though it only expected to receive $40 million in taxes from diamond companies — a major reduction from the $600 million it had anticipated but fell far short of in 2012 — it had not collected a single dollar in diamond industry taxes to date in 2013.

Yet data collected by the KP for the purpose of determining whether sanctions against it should be dropped showed that four mines in the Marange region remitted 15% of the $717 million they earned in 2012 to Harare, which amounts to $107 million.

That figure alone is between two and three times the total amount Zimbabwe’s Finance ministry claimed to have collected in 2012, $41 million.

The documents cited by Business Report are not available to the general public, but are said to exist on the KP website and are available to any KP affiliated group.