{"id":554412,"date":"2022-01-31T16:45:32","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T14:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=554412"},"modified":"2022-01-31T16:45:32","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T14:45:32","slug":"a-message-to-ramaphosa-from-one-of-south-africas-biggest-alcohol-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/554412\/a-message-to-ramaphosa-from-one-of-south-africas-biggest-alcohol-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"A message to Ramaphosa from one of South Africa\u2019s biggest alcohol groups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The National Liquor Traders Association has called on the government to keep sin taxes unchanged in the February 2022 budget, citing unaffordability issues.<\/p>\n<p>The association, which represents over 39,000 liquor outlets employing more than 280,000 workers, said that it had been severely impacted by multiple alcohol sales bans imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter addressed to president Cyril Ramaphosa and finance minister Enoch Godogwana, the group called for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A 0% increase in excise duty.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The end of the term &#8216;sin tax&#8217;. &#8220;It is our contention that in a constitutional state this term has no room to exist, and it is contrary to latter, and spirit as espoused by Section 22 of our Constitution which reads, every citizen has the right to choose their trade, occupation or profession freely,&#8221; the group said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The end to rules and regulations which prevent state-owned funding and lending agencies from assisting liquor traders as they are seen to be the &#8216;sin&#8217; industry. &#8220;The inability of the state to support small and black-owned businesses continues to hamper our growth efforts and prevents us from entering the manufacturing domain where we can own the means to production,&#8221; it said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">&#8220;A<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">n upcoming<\/span> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">budget speech by the Minister of Finance, <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">Enoch Godongwane<\/span> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">carries with <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">it a real risk that liquor traders will once again be punished by an uncaring government <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">through the <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">increase in sin tax. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">&#8220;It is our view that government cannot <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">seek to derive tax <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">revenue <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">from <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">an <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">industry <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">it <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">deliberately<\/span> <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">tried <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">to <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">destroy <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">thr<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">ough <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">un<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">justified <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">and <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">unscientific alcohol bans and restrictions,&#8221; said the association&#8217;s Lucky Ntimane.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He added that a <span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">0% increase on excise duty payable will aid in the recovery efforts of taverners, who are <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">the mainstay of the township economy and the largest employer <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">in the sector accounting for <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">over 250,000 jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">&#8220;We continue to call on the government to engage with liquor traders <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">so that we can look at the basket <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">of options necessary to supporting liquor traders, w<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">ho are essentially small black-owned<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">\u00a0<\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">businesses. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">&#8220;The continued ignorance of this important sector by the government <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">only continues <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">to strengthen the notion <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">that President Ramaphosa and his government <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">views liquor traders <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">as nothing but a cow that must be milked to its death through <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">taxes that are surely going to <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">be the death knell of this <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">important sector.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/553024\/top-companies-to-work-for-in-south-africa-in-every-major-sector\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Top companies to work for in South Africa \u2013 in every major sector<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Liquor Traders Association has called on the government to keep sin taxes unchanged in the February 2022 budget, citing unaffordability issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":397893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-554412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554412"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":554484,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554412\/revisions\/554484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}