Problems Faced Over Community Resource Tax Payments

3 May 2011

Maputo — A lack of identity documents and rural banks are standing in the way of the government reallocating 20 per cent of the taxes paid by companies for the exploitation of natural resources back to the local communities.

This argument was put forward by the National Director of Lands and Forests, Dinis Lissave, during the Fourth National Conference on the Community Management of Natural Resources held last week in the city of Maputo.

Under the Law on Forestry and Wildlife, 20 per cent of the taxes raised from the exploitation of forests and wildlife should be channelled to the local community from where the resources were extracted. In this context, it was established that the communities should each open a bank account to receive the funds.

However, this mechanism has up to this point been shown to be inefficient and has delayed the redistribution of resources. Banks are not available throughout the country and some communities have found it hard to get the correct paperwork to open a bank account.

According to Lissave, his directorate is taking steps to counter these problems. Despite the problems, since 2005 the State has distributed 94 million meticais to 717 communities, although “this figure could have been higher if there had been no constraints”.

Since 2005 a total of 1,089 communities have enrolled with the scheme, and 814 of these have established the necessary management committees.

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