The government is now getting its share of the diamond revenue immediately after the sale instead of waiting for dividends at the end of the year, Mines Minister Walter Chidhakwa told the Parliamentary Committee on Mines and Energy.
“We have now worked out a way of saying let’s not wait to share our dividend at the end of the year. Let’s say we have taken away the depletion fee and the royalty, we now remain with the cost of running the company, exploration and new development.
We agree on how much we will set aside for that. The rest we share 50-50: this one goes into a Government account and this one goes straight into the partner’s account. That is the system basis which we are working on now.”
Royalties pegged at 15 percent go to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority while depletion fees of two percent go to the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation. ZMDC is a joint venture partner in five of the diamond miners at Marange- Mbada, Anjin, Diamond Mining Company, Jinan and Kusena- and wholly owns Marange Resources.
There have been complaints that Zimbabwe’s diamond sales are not transparent and the government could be losing a lot of revenue.
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