THE carbon tax is not new but has been in place for a long time, Zambia Revenue Authority Commissioner General Chriticles Mwansa has clarified.

This follows the public’s displeasure over the introduction of the carbon tax this month, saying that the relevant authorities did not create enough awareness before implementing the tax.

Mwansa explained that the law had not changed on carbon tax except for the paying points.

“Carbon tax is not a new tax. People importing cars have always been paying for it but may not have realised it,” he said. “People were paying for this tax as they were clearing their cars at border points.”

Mwansa explained that ZRA had more strength at border areas than the Road Traffic and Transport Agency (RTSA) hence the agreement between the two parties to have the authority collect the tax.

“Now that RTSA has put its house in order, they are collecting this tax through the quarterly road taxes,” he said.

Recently, it was announced that Zambia was expected to have a third trading platform (carbon credit exchange) this June that would aim at facilitating funds for development of projects seeking to protect the environment and mitigating climate change.

It is expected that the African Carbon Credit Exchange (ACCE) would be located in Lusaka but with broking offices across the continent that would facilitate the carbon trading platform.

Though similar in nature to the Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) which trades in shares and bonds, ACCE would be trading in units of reduced but captured carbon emissions and harmful greenhouse gases and these units would be referred to as carbon credits.