Water VAT exemption would hurt government, says Matambo

In response to a question in Parliament, Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Kenneth Matambo said if the provision of water was to be exempted from the payment of VAT, government would suffer a loss.

He said that in such a case, government may be forced to recover through other means, such as an increase in the VAT rate on other goods and service in order to collect the same level of the VAT revenue.  "Higher tax revenues would adversely affect households and businesses and this must be avoided."