The Southern African Resource Watch (SARW) commissioned a research paper that investigates certain aspects of Namibia’s mineral legislative and policy framework. According to the research, the mining sector is guilty of wide- spread illicit financial flows, tax-base erosion and price manipulation. These allegations, however, are based on flawed assumptions and inaccuracies. 

The authors of the report use the allegations to suggest that Namibia’s mining tax policy is inefficient, and that Government has forfeited revenue from the mining sector and suggest changes to Namibia’s mining taxation regime. In this brief, the Chamber has extracted each of such allegations and provided responses as to why we believe they are incorrect and inaccurate. There is a risk that such allegations could be incorrectly interpreted by stakeholders and Government, who in response to this report, may consider changes to Namibia’s mining tax regime that could have serious unintended consequences to the country’s economy.