No longer calling duties ‘sin tax’ is only joy liquor industry takes from budget

The National Liquor Traders (NLT) Association says the only joy for tavern owners from finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s 2022 budget speech is the removal of the term sin-tax from its vocabulary.

The NLT had asked the government to abolish the term’ sin tax’ in January. 

The organisation appealed to President Cyril Ramaphosa and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to stop referring to taxes levied on the alcohol industry as ‘sin-tax’ because it’s ‘derogatory’.

“We believe that this will somehow bring dignity back into the alcohol industry, which continues to support 1 million jobs in the alcohol value chain,” said NLT convenor Lucky Ntimane.

But it’s disappointed appeals for increased support for small business owners fell on deaf ears.

“The economic recovery remains a pipedream for liquor traders who continue to be treated as second class citizens by this country, with no support measure announced by the minister of finance, with excise duties on the increase once again above inflation,” said the NLT in a statement. 

“Once again, liquor traders have to fend for themselves and somehow conjure up survival means against the illicit market’s onslaught, which will be celebrating the above-inflation excise duty increase, which will undoubtedly boost their criminal network.” 

The NLT hit out at Godongwana, saying the biggest winner of the 2022 budget is the illicit market.

“Legal liquor traders will bear the brunt of the government’s ignorance of this important sector and ultimately condemn and pave the way for the industry’s erosion of profits and job losses,” it said. 

The NLT has promised to continue engagements with the government to ensure the total inclusion of liquor traders into the mainstream economy takes place urgently. 

“We cannot continue operating on the economy’s periphery,” concluded Ntimane.

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