(3 minutes read)
· The South African Sugarcane Growers Association (SA Canegrowers) has called on Finance Minister Tito Mboweni to bring down sugar tax to help save the local industry
· They also said that it could lead to accrual of an
additional R100 billion revenue to the exchequer(National Treasury), besides creating 65,000 direct jobs
· The sugar cane growers said that the increased levy would mostly fall on some 21,581 small-scale growers, who are under a great financial stress
The South African Sugarcane Growers Association (SA anegrowers) has called on Finance Minister Tito Mboweni to bring down sugar tax to help save the local industry as the finance minister is preparing to deliver the Budget speech next Wednesday.
The cane growers argued that reducing the health promotion levy will help the industry recover. They also said that it could lead to accrual of an additional R100 billion revenue to the exchequer(National Treasury), besides creating 65,000 direct jobs . The sugar cane growers said that the increased levy would mostly fall on some 21,581 small-scale growers, who are under a great financial stress. The growers have been asking for a reduction of sugar tax for some time, which they claimed had stolen some 9000 jobs.
Importantly, a Sugar Industry Master plan was signed in November last year, wherein sugarcane growers, industry stakeholders and government, agreed that the sugar tax be reviewed, due to its socio-economic impact. An assessment about the impact of the tax is underway but not yet finalized. Sugarcane growers are hoping that the finance minister would come out with some positive steps to reduce the incidence of tax on the ugarcane growers. However, analysts are of the opinion that the government does not have a leeway to cut taxes at a time, when the country is facing a huge resource crunch. Industry as a whole has been demanding proactive steps to catalyze various sectors. It would be a difficult task for the finance minister to cherry pick a sector to give sops, leaving the others
