With the aim of putting an end to a long running dispute between the mining industry and the government, Zambia has started paying
value-added-tax (VAT) refunds again to mining companies.
Mining companies for months claimed they were owed more than $600
million in VAT refunds and in February the government decided to relax the rule
requiring exporters to produce import-export documents to claim the refunds.
Foreign companies operating mines in the world's second biggest
producer of copper include Glencore, First Quantum Barrick Gold Corp and
Vedanta.
 |
| A worker oversees a mine in Zambia |
Vedanta's chief executive Tom Albanese confirmed the government had resumed some payments to Reuters news agency.
"They are beginning to pay back on invoices post February 2015 on
a case by case basis," he said.